Brett Dennen - Ain't No Reason writing about the song and the video - Essay Example

Speakers use what they know to find their attitudes on a subject and their understanding of a reader (Lamb 4). Summary of the text The song “ain’t no reason” by Brett Dennen talks about how things like ignorance, priviledge, and life’s daily routine get in the way not just of addressing but also recognizing the suffering around us. He talks about how many lives are been irreparably changed and hurt and the way our world has been destroyed and hence the future generation tends to have a bleak outlook.

The reasons for this he explains are because of poverty, war, violence, hatred, genocide, environmental degradation, oppression and most importantly because we are unable to see the suffering that surround and end up working against it. This text can trigger the audience to debate about what it really means to be conscious of suffering and the moral obligations we have to make in order to effect change. Bretten stresses that we should passively understand that the answer to all this is love. He describes it as a practice of kindness, compassion and respect among all the living things our planet included.

He is strongly against the idea of living a disconnected life. Aristotle argued that it is possible to connect to your audience logically emotionally and ethically. These three forms what is referred to as the rhetorical triangle (Lutze 1). ETHOS (WRITER) LOGOS (TEXT) PATHOS (READER) (Henggeler 2). These three appeals in the triangle form a balance of what the writer should use to be able to form an effective argument. Each appeal is important to be able to produce a well balanced argument as they directly affect each other.

Rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) Ethos Ethos refers to character of a writer. This explores the ability to deal with a topic. (Metzeger 7). The writer or singer Brett Dennen is well conversant with the way people are living around him. This is evidenced by the way he refers to the way people are living around him. We are made aware of that by the fact that he says he does not understand or neither explains why they live the way they live yet they do it everyday.’ I can't explain why we live this way.

We do it every day (Dennen n. p.)’. The writer is also able to explore the issue of politics of lies and also the deception used by those in power. Pathos Pathos refers to the arguments or rather the appeals to emotions. This can be viewed a show well the writer is able to draw the audience’s emotions and tap in to them. It is the role of the audience in the argument (Henggeler 1). The song artist Brett Dennen is able to draw the listeners emotions in his song ‘Ain’t No Reason’ and thereby has effectively used pathos to connect to his listeners.

He is able to draw the emotions of confusion when he points out that he can’t explain why they live that way yet they continue to do it every day. ‘I can't explain why we live this way. We do it every day (Dennen).’ The song artist’ is also able to explore the emotion of bitterness and also expresses the continuity of their suffering. The writer states, ’I gotta a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same’ shows of the continuous bitterness. This can also suggest that there is recurrence of the same things over and over again till they start getting used to the feeling of being bitter with the occurrences.

Brett Dennen