In the article "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" by Todd May, May uses Aristotle's pathos appeal to lead to his audience to agree with his argument that violence in the United States must come to an end. May uses tragic events, like 9/11, the Boston bombing, and Sandy Hook Elementary School, to demonstrate the impact violence has in the United States. By May using these life altering tragic events to prove his points he is using the pathos appeal by playing on the emotions of the audience to convey his argument against violence in America.

Throughout "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" May uses emotions to persuade his audience instead of direct quotes, demonstrating the Pathos appeal. According to The Carolina Rhetoric Pathos is one of Aristotle's three appeals when "the rhetor persuades by playing upon the listener's (or reader's) emotions. He or she may refer to children, death, disaster, injustice, or other topics that arouse pity, fear, or other emotions" (Bauknight and Meyer 13). Todd May opens his argument by talking about the recent tragedy of the Boston bombing and continues throughout history in his introduction paragraph covering 9/11 and the mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School. May opening up his argument with these three tragic events his leads his audience to inevitably feel a sense of pain and sadness before even getting to the main part of the argument. As a result of May opening with three violent act of crimes it directly leads his audience to feel opposed to violence in America before even hearing May's argument. 

 After reading the article "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" the reader is intended to be left with a sense of hope to change the violence rates, however the audience additionally feels pain for what they have allowed to happen in the United States. May asks his readers "Who are we now" (May 354)? Leading to the response that "clearly, we are a violent country. Our murder rate of three to five times that of most other industrialized countries" (May 354). May proceeds to tell us that even though guns are the main cause of the violence, the United States continues to push guns as the solution (May 354). By May saying we are attempting to reduce violence by increasing violence makes his readers feel responsible for the problem at hand because all along the readers have been solving the problem with the problem. 

As the article "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" continues, Todd May leads his audience to believe that we are the reason behind why the United States is so violent. May asks his readers, "How has the United States become so saturated in slaughter" (May 354)? May answers his own question and tells us that there are three reasons: competitive individualism, decline of our ability to control events in the world, and economic (May 354). May describes competitive individualism as that Americans are proud and we are determined to do everything alone (May 355). May says that "our neighboring citizens are not so much our fellows as our competitors" (May 355). May describes the decline of our ability to control events in the world as our need to be in control and in order to be in control we use violence in example Iraq and Vietnam (May 355). May tells us that economic is the competition to provide for ourselves and not have any obligations to helping others (May 355). May describes and ties a tragic violent event in history to all three reasons leaving the blame on the reader. Using tragic violent events in his reasoning May is leading his readers to respond to his article with emotions instead of logic. By May doing this he is playing on his audience's sense of guilt and pain to lead his readers to agree with his argument. 

Although Todd May is using Pathos in "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" he also uses parts of Logos and Ethos, two more of Aristotle's appeals. Logos is when "the rhetor persuades by using reasoning and evidence. Arguments based on logos employ deductive or inductive reasoning" (Bauknight and Meyer 13). May uses Logos to walk us through the cause of violence in the United States and the possible solution. Ethos is when "the rhetor persuades by means of his or her character or credibility. In oratory, the speaker projects an air of confidence and authority. In writing, ethos is conveyed by the writer's qualifications or the authorities cite and also by the quality of the writing" (Bauknight and Meyer 13). Although May does not cite any authorities or state his qualifications he writes with confidence and uses huge events in time to help support his claims all displaying Ethos. By May using Logos to walk us through the argument it makes the argument easy to follow along letting the reader focus on the Pathos in the argument. May also writes with confidence, using Ethos, which gives the argument a sense of credibility leading the audience to feel guilty which helps May use Pathos in his argument. Although the main Aristotle appeal in "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" is Pathos all three appeals are used to prove the argument and to carry out the Pathos appeal. 

In the article "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" Todd May plays on his reader's emotions because his goal in order to prove his argument that violence in America must end. In order to prove his argument though May uses Aristotle's appeal Pathos by playing on the audience emotions in regards to violence. The majority of the time these emotions are hurt for the ones that have been affected by violence. Therefore, when May is talking about violence he uses huge life altering events that changed and destroyed so many lives to prove that violence must end. The audience will agree with May because the negative emotions they have for violence are so strong when mentioning, 9/11, the Boston bombing, and Sandy Hook Elementary School, so all together the audience will be against violence backing up May's argument. 

