To persuade is to induce to believe by appealing to reason or understanding; in other words, to convince. We all like to convince people to do what we want, but it’s really all about how we do what we do to persuade someone. There are different methods to persuade someone such as in “The Use of Force” by William Carlos Williams where the characters persuade one another just like someone in modern day society would. In “The Use of Force”, the doctor finds Mathilda to be “an unusually attractive little thing and as strong as a heifer in appearance” (Williams 1) but Mathilda gives the doctor a distrustful look.
The way the characters interact with each other shows how similar they are, stubborn. At first the doctor acted nice to the girl and tried to look as presentable as possible. He wanted to give her a convincing expression. So she would do as he told her, “Aw, come on, I coaxed, just open your mouth wide and let me take a look. ” (Williams 1) She didn’t move and didn’t open her mouth. When the little girl got tired of the doctor getting close to her she used physical violence persuasion. As I moved my chair a little heavier suddenly with one catlike movement both her hands caught instantly for my eyes and she almost reached them too. ” (Williams 1) It was her way of convincing him that she didn’t want to open her mouth for any reason.
She wasn’t going to let him get what he wanted. When the girl refused to open her mouth after so many tries the doctor used fear persuasion. “I’m here to look at her throat on the chance that she might have diphtheria and possibly die from it. ” (Williams 1) “Look here I said to the child we’re going to look at your throat. (Williams 1) The characters used the methods they used to persuade each other to do as a told. The doctor wanted her to open her mouth and a girl wanted him to leave her alone. Just like the doctor and Mathilda did, people also have different methods to persuade. On the online article “Persuasive Techniques”, it discusses persuasive techniques that are appealing to the audience that William Carlos Williams used in his story. (1) An example being the fear that the doctor tried putting into Mathilda.
The desire that the doctor wanted Mathilda to be healthy. I know how to expose a throat for expectation and I did my best. The doctor and Mathilda weren’t the only ones to use persuasive techniques. Mathilda parents also use different methods to convince. Do you want her to die of diphtheria? The husband said to the wife he used rhetorical question which is a way to convince others to agree with our fax. The persuasive method was meant to be a question that is too foolish to answer because the answer was obvious.
The Use of Force makes people think about how stupid the girl Mathilda was for not telling her parents or the doctor but she was sick. She convinced him that nothing was wrong but after she started getting a fever she couldn’t hide her sickness. You can try to convince someone of something but most people will not listen to you. The doctor was so sure that she had diphtheria he was determined to prove it. And there it was both tonsils covered with membrane she had fought valiantly to keep me from knowing her secret. After the doctor found out what was wrong with her her improved it, Mathilda was mad.
But with the evidence the doctor had it was very difficult to deny without calling into question that validity of the evidence. So the doctor was able to convince and prove to Mathilda parents that she was dying. In modern day society, persuasion is used in some other forms as in the use of force. The met the zeros in the use of force or more of emotions fears rhetorical questions evidence and attacks. Society likes to convince each other with the similar methods that William used in his story because it’s the most common methods.
Please come down as soon as you can my daughter is very sick. The author used emotion. Persuasion. Emotional appeal in modern day society can be used in many ways. An example of an emotional appeal in modern-day society would be when a student talks to their teacher hoping for pity as he asked for more time to turn in their homework. But his dread also that she might have diphtheria made him tell me to go on. In the sentence the author use for your persuasion fear appeal is a dominant motivator and methods of persuasion. Society can do you fear appeal extremely contrasting.
An example of your appeal use a modern-day society would be when a student doesn’t turn in their homework and their teacher tells them they are going to fail and not graduate if they don’t pass the class. The teacher put fear into the student convincing them to start doing their homework. Rhetorical questions in modern day society is nothing more than sarcasm. The sarcasm we use makes people question themselves and it convinces them that who ever used a rhetorical question must be right. An example of a rhetorical question would be when a teacher asks a student “Do you want to go to ISS? for skipping class. It convinces the student that they will get in trouble if they skip.
Someone in modern day society would use different methods to persuade someone just like the characters would in “The Use of Force” by William carlos williams. Persuasion methods like fear, emotions and attacks is used all around the world now a days. Trying to convince Someone isn’t a bad thing unless it’s used for the wrong reasons. Otherwise we always try to convince people to believe us. So now you have to brush up on your persuasion techniques so you can convince people of what you want and what you know.