In the article "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" by Todd May, May uses Aristotle's appeal to pathos to lead to his audience to agree with his argument that violence in the United States must come to an end. Throughout "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" May talks about why America is so violent and what provisions need to be taken in order to be a nonviolent country. 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 in order to prove his points he is demonstrating the pathos appeal by playing on the emotions of the audience to convey his argument against ending violence in America.

Throughout "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" May uses emotional events in history 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. If May opened his argument with going straight into the precautions needed to become nonviolent his audience would be confused to why America should be non violent. As a result of May opening with three violent act of crimes, his audience feels opposed to violence in America before even hearing May's argument. 

 After reading the article "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" the audience is intended to be motivated to change the violence rates in America, however the audience additionally is left with a sense of guilt for the violence they have allowed to take place in America. May asks his readers, "Who are we now?" (May 354) By May asking this he directs his audience to a specific response "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. In order for May to successfully lead his audience to feel responsible he uses Aristotle's appeal to pathos. 

America is getting more violent as time goes on, and in Todd May's eyes there are three reasons behind violence in America. As the article "Is American Nonviolence Possible?" continues, Todd May leads his audience to believe that we are the reason 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 decline (May 354). May describes competitive individualism as a period when Americans are proud and 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 our economic state displays the competition to provide for ourselves and not have any obligations to helping others (May 355). May stating the three reasons is him indirectly blaming the audience for the violence in America all by using pathos.  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?" to convey his argument against ending violence in America, May also uses parts of Logos and Ethos, two more of Aristotle's appeals to inform and persuade the reader. 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 violent events, like 9/11, the Boston bombing, and Sandy Hook Elementary School to help support his claims displaying Ethos. May using Logos to walk us through the argument makes the argument easy to follow allowing the reader to focus on the Pathos of the argument. May also writes with confidence, using Ethos, which gives the argument a sense of credibility, leading the audience to feel guilty, helping May to 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. All together the audience will be against violence backing up May's argument. 

