Weekly Blog Post 5

Of all three appeals, pathos is probably the most present in Maria Mena's video for "Nevermind Me." It's loosely described as playing off the audience's emotions, but I particularly like the definition given on dictionary.com--"the quality or power in an actual life experience or in literature, music, speech, or other forms of expression, of evoking a feeling of pity or compassion."
I'm sure we can all identify with loving (I use that term loosely in this particular context) someone who, more or less, doesn't know we exist. If I met a person who told me that had never happened in his life, I'd call him a liar. As I alluded to in my previous blog entry, this is represented by Maria and the boy in the video by them trying to get the attention of surrounding people in one of the easiest ways possible: by dressing up like an animal. Still, either no one is noticing them, or they're just being flat-out ignored. This is how it is with unrequited love much of the time--there are days when you're sure that he/she feels the same way, and there are days where you're not sure the two of you are even friends. It's both ends of the spectrum emotionally.

If one examines this video even more closely, she'll find that there's also a subtle appeal to logos. Like I just said, they're dressed up in animal costumes. You'd think that would make them a hot button on people's radar screens, but instead they're pushed to the side. This isn't exactly normal, is it? If I saw a giant bear walking down the middle of the street somewhere, I'd probably at least try to figure out what he was distributing/doing there in the first place. However, this is perfect in the context of the video, which appeals to logos by being the opposite of everything you'd expect--something you can also say about love. It's not logical, but it still happens.