Blog #8

After watching Suheir Hammed in Def Jam Poetry, I discovered ways that she utilized logos, ethos, and pathos. Hammed uses Aristotle's logos or logical by persuading the audience through poetry. You can tell when the camera shows the audience that everyone, and by everyone I mean there were many different races in the audience, had their eyes glued to her and were really listening. You can tell because after some lines that she said, "We didn't vilify white men when McVeigh bombed Oklahoma, give out his families address or church or blame the bible or pat fuc*ing robinson"(2:52 Hammad). She used ethos (credibility or ethical appeal), because she talked about her home country, and where she was from. She was credible to talk about the palestinian people, because she herself is from there. She was born there, and by being born there she uses Aristotle's ethos or credibility. Hammed also uses pathos, or emotion when she preaches out about her brother, and exclaims that she is so sick of people asking what navy her brother is in. She is an American, and there are many people that stereotype her daily.

What Hammad is arguing about is the fact that America isn't the only country that gets bombed, and people need to realize what is going on in the world, and not just in America. She uses poetry to try and inform the people, her audience, or whoever is listening that people seem to only care about what is going on in America, and they need to realize how there are serious problems going on in the world around us.

I believe that this poem was very effective, because it made me think differently than I usually do. Hammad allowed me, and a lot of others to take a step back and think about what is going on in the whole world, not just the country in which I reside. Her true emotions showed, and you could tell she strongly believed in what she was preaching.