I think Quinn’s argument needed more pathos and ethos to be truly effective. I could really see myself as the student, when he was confused I was often confused as well and I think that is why Quinn never gave him a name because it made it easier to put yourself in that position since we are essentially learning as the student is. Quinn doesn’t use pathos often, but the few times he did it was very effectively used.ĭaniel Quinn presents Ishmaels arguments in a very philosophical style and it feels as though the student, who is never named in the story is the reader. There have been people to try but no one has ever stopped drilling for oil and driving giant semi-trucks that are destroying the earth. This makes me feel very guilty and angry to the CEO’s and people that have come before me because they haven’t done anything to stop it. He mostly tells stories that made me feel guilty, for example on page 80 he discusses how we’ve “poured our poisons into the world” (Quinn 80) and he goes on to say there is almost no way for the world to recover because we’ve damaged it so much. Throughout the book Quinn uses very few examples of pathos. He did this to show that creation did not end with man like we previously thought.

Ishmael says the same thing with “finally jellyfish appeared” (Quinn 56). For example, my favorite story was the one about the creation of man and he ends with “then man appeared” (Quinn 53). He did this a lot through stories he told that put many things we see every day in a different perspective hence making us think about it in a very different way. On almost every page there was logical evidence to back up his claim he was currently making. Daniel Quinn mostly uses logos to support his claims throughout the book.

Ishmael daniel quinn review