An Analysis on How Logos, Ethos and Pathos Have Been Used in The American Television Show The Sons of Anarchy

Rhetoric Devices in Sons of Anarchy

Most people wouldn’t expect there to be any connections between a literary class and manly soap opera about a motorcycle club, but that is exactly what I was able to find in my favorite television show, Sons of Anarchy. In what is arguably my favorite scene from the show, five members of the club, Jax, Juice, Chibs, Tig, and Happy, are pulled over by a pair of dirty police officers, who attempt to scam them into stealing their motorcycles. A fight eventually breaks out, followed by a motorcycle chase and the officer’s car crashing. Although on the surface, this may seem like just a dumb action filled scene, it is easy to see the examples of logos, ethos, and pathos, when it is more closely examined.

Throughout the scene, there was evident use of logos by both the police officers, and the members of the motorcycle club. When the officers first pulled them over, they were trying to use facts to argue that it made sense that the bikers were criminals and that the added features on their bikes were stolen. They pointed out facts like the images on their vests suggested criminal activity and that their bikes were similar to ones that had been recently stolen. The bikers on the other hand, were also able to make a logical argument against the officers that easily proved that they were only trying to steal their bikes to sell them. They could tell that since the officers had an independent auto body shop to pick up their bikes at, they clearly had intentions besides protecting and serving. Although both groups were on different sides of the law, they were both able to use logic to make sound arguments against each other.

Additionally, the character based arguments made by the bikers and officers tied in very closely to the logical arguments. The most obvious was made by the officers. They made an immediate character judgement based on their knowledge of outlaw clubs, and although the officers knew that the sons were not responsible for the stolen motorcycles, they assumed that they were on their way to commit a crime, so it would be easy for them to take their bikes with no questions asked from their higher-ups. Basically, they thought that the sons were just a group of dumb criminals, which unfortunately was a mistake on their part. The sons on the other hand, were also able to judge that based on the character and behavior of the officers, that their only intention was to make a quick dollar from their bikes. This correct assumption eventually led them to the source where Juice’s bike had been stolen, where they would use strong emotional arguments to get what they needed from the officers.

Once the club escaped the officers and made their way to the auto-body shop they were told about, they stumbled upon an enormous number of cars and motorcycles that the officers had stolen in the past. Once they lured them to the shop, they were able to prey on their emotions by threatening to expose everything that they found to more legitimate authorities if they didn’t clear any records of what had happened earlier and give Juice the bike of his choice to replace the one that they had already ruined. By using the fear and anger that the officers felt, the club was able to turn a situation that could have been disastrous into a successful and positive one.

At first glance, finding rhetoric devices in Sons of Anarchy seems pretty much impossible to do. But if one is willing to look a little past the more obvious elements of the show, clear examples of logos, ethos, and pathos being used in certain scenes are much more obvious to an attentive viewer. Not only does pointing these out make the show seem much more intelligent, but keeping an eye out for examples of these can also help me to improve my writing.