The essay "Political Paralysis" by Danusha Veronica Goska is talking about how people believe that unnoticed gestures of insignificant people mean nothing. This is a factual statement of human nature. In today's world with our busy lifestyles, people often think that smaller gestures do not have an effect worthy of a gesture. In Goska's essay she is portraying this through her own experiences. This essay is an example of an effective form of rhetoric. Rhetoric is "the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion" (Webster's). Goska's speech echoes the persuasive form of rhetorical concepts of ethos, pathos, and logos that are discussed in Aristotle's "Rhetoric". "Ethos is the speakers' power of evincing a personal character which will make his speech credible. Logos is the power of proving a truth, or apparent truth by means of persuasive arguments. Pathos is the power of stirring the emotions of the hearers" (Honeycutt). Goska skillfully appeals to the emotions and logic of her audience in a credible manner through the form of persuasive rhetoric.
             Goska's first form of persuasive rhetoric is ethos. Ethos is credibility, using the reputation, experience, and values of the author or an expert to support claims. Goska tells her audience that she is, "stricken by a debilitating illness" called Perilymph fistulas, which is a disease of the inner ear (1137). It causes dizziness, vertigo, imbalance, nausea, and vomiting. Goska is using this to establish that she is an authority on the subject she is talking about. Goska has a paralysis of her own and has not let it stop her from helping others. With this statement, Goska is trying to form a connection with her audience.
             Goska uses ethos to connect with her audience when she talks about her travels. Goska states, "While working or traveling in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, I occasionally met people who really did have next to nothing, but who stunned me w...