Question

Read the following passage from "Resistance to Civil Government" by Henry David Thoreau: I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. How does Thoreau use ethos in this passage? A. By describing the prison he was locked up in, using vivid detail B. By linking the crime he committed to the punishment that followed C. By making the reader sympathetic to his suffering D. By showing that he is willing to go to jail for his beliefs

Answer 1

D. that he is willing to go to jail for his beliefs

short and simple lol

Answer 2

Answer: D. By showing that he is willing to go to jail for his beliefs.

A appeal to ethos is an appeal on ethical grounds. This type of appeal presents the author as someone credible and worth listening to, in order to make his argument more persuasive. Thoreau believes in resistance to government, and he carries it out by not paying taxes for six years. By showing that he is willing to go to jail for his beliefs, he is more likely to convince people that his argument is moral and worth listening to.