Posted: January 2nd, 2020

What is the emotional significance of this work? (Pathos)

Arundhati Roy wrote her award winning novel with a certain audience in mind. She depicts the lives of women, men, little children, old folk, and small and big towns in India across several years. One of the issues she focuses on is gendered identities. She depicts how gender intersects with other markers of difference to affect people’s lives and experiences.This essay requires you to analyze some of these intersections, and discuss Roy’s intentions in depicting them. 

To help you conduct this discussion, you should pay close attention to the following questions:

-Who are the audiences of these texts?

-What is the text’s central argument/ message? How does the work convey this idea, or set of ideas through the portrayal of characters, and their experiences?

-What is the logical development (stylistic arrangement) of ideas to sustain/ support this message? In other words, how does the work’s narrative develop? What evidence does it use? For instance, does it use testimonies, or statistics, or characters’ personal experiences and thoughts? (Logos, and Ethos)

-What is the emotional significance of this work? (Pathos)

-What are the ethical and ideological aims of the writer?

These questions are essential in understanding the themes addressed by the works, and the “work” they do among a reading public.