Pathos and Ethos in Black Like Me Ketan Bagade 11th Grade

It is well-known that throughout history, people oppressed each other because of differences amongst themselves. The most recent situation where this one sees this is in the 1950s and 1960s, where black people treated unequally simply because their skin color was different from that of the white people. While not all white people discriminated against black people, a significant amount of them did; this was due to their morals, and their parents raised them. John Howard Griffin, the main character and author of Black Like Me, shows how poorly they were treated by disguising as a black man and going through their daily lives. John Howard Griffin’s purpose for writing this book is to inform others of how and why black people were treated so poorly. He does this by providing real examples that evoke the reader’s emotion by appealing to pathos. In addition, he provides examples to make the reader think about their morals, which appeals to ethos.

One of the main ways that Griffin attempts to inform the reader of the terrible treatment of black people is by appealing to pathos by evoking the reader’s emotion. Early on in the book, when Griffin first disguises himself as a black person, he boards a bus for the first time as a black...