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Motifs
Definition of Pathos
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is an argument that appeals to... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective speaking or writing). Pathos is... read full definition
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric (the art of effective... read full definition
Chapter 1: The One to Get Away
Explanation and Analysis—Coming With Me:
In this moment from Chapter 1, the narrative uses pathos to transform a simple act of sending a postcard into a deeply emotional declaration of love and belonging:
I took out the stamps I had brought from home wrapped in waxed paper, and licked one and stuck it on my souvenir postcard from the Cherokee Nation. I added a line at the bottom: “I found my head rights, Mama. They’re coming with me."
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Chapter 9: Ismene
Explanation and Analysis—No Papers:
In this moment in Chapter 9, Kingsolver uses pathos to entwine personal tragedy with political injustice, allowing the reader to feel the full weight of both.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Ismene Esperanza tried to kill herself. Estevan came to the back door and told me in a quiet voice that she had taken a bottle of baby aspirin. I couldn’t really understand why he had come. ‘Shouldn’t you be with her?’ I asked. He said she was with Mattie. Mattie had found her almost immediately and rushed her to a clinic she knew of in South Tucson where you didn’t have to show papers. I hadn’t even thought of this—all the extra complications that must have filled their lives even in times of urgency. Mattie once told me about a migrant lemon picker in Phoenix who lost a thumb in a machine and bled to death because the nearest hospital turned him away.
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Chapter 14: Guardian Saints
Explanation and Analysis—Too Tired:
Kingsolver employs pathos to draw the reader into the lived reality of systemic violence and displacement:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But of course there was more to the picture. Police everywhere, always. Whole villages of Indians forced to move again and again. As soon as they planted their crops, Estevan said, the police would come and set their houses and fields on fire and make them move again. The strategy was to wear them down so they’d be too tired or too hungry to fight back[.]
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Chapter 16: Soundness of Mind and Freedom of Will
Explanation and Analysis—Mother and Daughter:
In Chapter 16, the narration uses pathos to appeal directly to the reader’s emotions through the primal, universal bond between mother and child:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Here were a mother and her daughter, nothing less. A mother and child—in a world that could barely be bothered with mothers and children—who were going to be taken apart. Everybody believed it. Possibly Turtle believed it. I did. Of all the many times when it seemed to be so, that was the only moment in which I really came close to losing Turtle.
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Chapter 17: Rhizobia
Explanation and Analysis—Don't Know How To:
As Taylor expresses her fear of losing Turtle, the narration employs pathos to evoke empathy and shared human experience:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I don’t want to lose you. I’ve never lost anybody I loved, and I don’t think I know how to.
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