Perhaps out of all the pieces we have read thus far, the Ida B. Wells- Barnett article "Lynch Law in America" has the most clear exigence. The author has an incredibly clear purpose. Wells-Barnett is persuading her audience to rethink the "unwritten law". She makes appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos to shock her audience into shame almost for letting lynching occur. Her purpose is to change the way Americans look at the whole situation.
Her audience is clearly a racial divided America. Specifically white people who lynch Blacks. But upon looking deeper the audience may also be Black America. To get them angry and inspire a change, her physically present audience, the readers, was more than likely black Americans and Americans supportive of change. Her constructed audience was White Americans who she felt she needed to convince. The article "Lynch Law in America" offers an interesting view of an actual audience vs. the constructed audience in the author's mind.
While I do believe her audience is that of racially divided America. I think that Wells-Barnett was trying to appeal to those people who were not necessarily doing the lynching but all the people who were ignoring what was happening in front of them. She uses language that is forward and direct, and does not rely on an emotional appeal as I think people would expect of a woman in her time.
ReplyDeleteShe uses facts, statistics, and logic as an appeal that seems to be made mostly to the men in the educated classes and the government who could actually have an effect on this "unwritten law" that is ravaging America. This is really shown when she starts talking about how much money the US has had to pay other countries in compensation for these meaningless deaths. Also she emphasizes the shame at the loss of pride in America's admission that they can't protect themselves.
Overall, this was an extremely well written article that seems to want to go right to the top to those who can actually do something about lynchings. It is almost like a battle cry for America to take back their pride and prove that we can protect ourselves and our women.