Joy by Zadie Smith - Article Example

Aristotle indicates that any argumentative writing should be persuasive enough to convince the audience that the ideas presented are valid and authentic. This way, the Greek philosopher set the appeals into three crucial categories ethos, Pathos, and logos. This is evidenced in the way Smith presented the ideas in the essay using her experiences to explain the difference between joy and pleasure. The essay captures subtle differences between joy and pleasure. One can easily distinguish, however, the credibility of the arguments to convince an audience to act or heed what is said is paramount.

 The persuasion used includes clarity in stipulating what pleasure means and what joy means. Pleasure experiences as expressed by Smith are personified in a pineapple Popsicle or the experience the people expect when on the streets of New York watching (Smith, 2013). The practical examples in this scenario put the listener in an imaginative scene to try feeling the experience and comprehending the information. As for joy, it concerns the experience that is tangible. Pleasure cannot be found but is a necessity for one to live.

This is better explained using her life experience when she had a child (Smith, 2013). “Occasionally the child, too, is a pleasure, though mostly she is a joy, which means, in fact, she gives us not much pleasure at all, but rather that strange admixture of terror, pain, and delight that I have come to recognize as joy, and now must find some way to live with daily.” The explanation that joy is never regained and can be easily lost is illustrated using the scenario of losing a child or a significant partner.

The lack of joy exposes one to be vulnerable and feel pain. Often one lacks pleasure as a whole (Smith, 2013). Zadie also abided by Aristotle's thoughts on persuasion. She convinced the audience when she narrated the way people comment about cooking or eating.  Ideally, the lack of awareness leads to a lack of discernment or any gratitude shown despite where there is a good effort applied. Arguably, pain is not dependent as one may experience joy, tastiness, and pleasure by not knowing the opposite.

For example, one can find happiness without necessarily feeling sad.  “Don’t say that was delicious,” my husband warns, “you say everything’s delicious." "But it was delicious." The assertion points at the significance of experiencing joy without feeling the opposite. Smith argues that as long as there was something delicious in her mouth her life is calmed, however, when the flavor fates, anxiety follows. Ideally, the presenting of credibility is applied using the ethos as stated by Aristotle.

Smith listens to her husband as she respected him when he commented on her cooking as delicious. The projection made in the essays creates the impression that the author is a good listener and took the comments of her husband (Smith, 2013). Pleasure sources also include “other people's faces." Smith tells of how she hates red-headed girls. This is convincing given Aristotle's use of pathos to appeal to the emotions of the reader. Smith describes the girl in a way that will provoke the feelings of a reader and will hate the persons described, “A girl with a marvelous large nose and has green eyes.

" It is the exception of everyone to have people mind their business but instead, they use other people to achieve personal interests, and as a standard of measure, Smith refers to her husband as a "gawker" (Smith, 2013).  Convincingly, using Aristotle's elements of placing proofs, Smith argues that joy is more significant compared to having pleasure. Smith says “perhaps the first thing to say is that I experienced at least a little pleasure every day” (Smith, 2013, p. 45). Smith applies the logical reasoning stated by Aristotle given the persuasive claims that use both the deductive and inductive reasoning to expound both experience pleasure and experiencing joy.

  In most cases, a child is a pleasure to have but more often shows joy.  This means the child offers an admixture that is unique, painful, and terrifying.  This way, Smith sees it as joy hence the need to adapt to live with it forever.