Knowledge and Individual Power Essay Example

have the courage to maintain your individuality and not conform to the majority no matter how you are viewed or treated by the majority.

You can see the world with clarity and see the madness for what it really is, which is perfect sanity. Although the three poems teach the same lessons of individuality, nonconformity and what can be gained from it. These three poems convey their message in different ways through the use of different rhetorical appeals; logos, ethos and pathos. The first poem “Crazy Courage” by Alma Villanueva, a poem about a boy that had the courage to come to his poetry class wearing woman’s clothing and speaking in front of his peers. This poem displays two of the three rhetorical appeals.

The first being logos this was displayed in the beginning of the poem with the statement “Why do I think of Michael... ”2 The second rhetorical appeal in this poem is pathos this was shown by the emotion of the narrator, who was moved by the display of courage that Michael showed coming to class dressed as a woman. The second display was reaction of the shock and the awe of the students that were in the classroom as Michael walked to the podium. Through his courage to be different and not conform to the normal, gained the respect of the majority.

The final display of pathos is when he hugged the narrator bye at the end of the poem and the emotion that was displayed by Michael and the narrator. Though the second poem “Much Madness is Divinest Sense” by Emily Dickinson conveyed the same idea as

the poem “Crazy Courage” it conveyed the idea in a different appeal. This poem displayed its point of being an individual and nonconformist by using the rhetorical appeal of Pathos. This poem tries to show the hate the majority will have for you and the fear of how you will be treated if you do not conform to the majority and see the world as they do.

The majority will treat you like you are dangerous and lock you up in chains. The last of the three poems that convey their claim of individuality is Langston Hughes' poem “Theme for English B. ” This poem has two separate appeals that are employed in this poem, one being ethos and the other logos. Hughes displays ethos in his poem by using the word 'I' to gain credibility with the teacher whom he is writing for. He uses 'I' in a strong sense that he is proud to be who he is and though he is different he just wants to be treated fairly.

In the beginning of the poem he says, ”I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. ”3 He starts to gain his credibility with this and then proceeds to go on telling the reader about his credibility, that he graduated high school, and that he is the only colored student in that college. The second appeal used is logos. The logos that he used is when he proceeds to compare the similarities between him and the teacher. He uses these appeals to persuade the teacher to treat him fairly even though e is a different color than he is.

The main

characters of each of these poems convey that to be an individual and to be different than the majority you can gain great self knowledge and incite. The passage from “Much Madness is Divinest Sense” says, “Much Madness is divinest Sense To a Discerning Eye. 4” If you stay who you are and not give in to the majority you can gain see the world with clarity. To gain incite on oneself is the greatest power that an individual can posses. With this courage, wisdom and incite can obtained.