Michael Moore’s Use of Rhetorical Appeals in Bowling for Columbine

The text Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore provides an audience a window into a different world, giving the opportunity to inform and change their perspective on social issues and concerns. Moore uses rhetorical appeals like ethos, pathos and logos to help him inform and persuade the audience of social concerns like gun control and fear mongering in the media. When Moore explores the social concern of gun control he utilises background knowledge to gain trust and credibility as the narrator, which makes persuading the audience easier. Moore uses the juxtaposition of Canada with America when exploring fear mongering in the media and how they create the need of guns, which helps him use emotions to connect with the audience.

In the text Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore explores the social concern of gun control, by using ethos to establish his credibility as the narrator. Moore uses his background knowledge of the topic of guns to help persuade the audience as in the beginning of the film,he establishes his past and childhood upbringing. He shows how he was raised in Michigan, was surrounded by guns as a child, and even won an award by the National Rifle Association. Moore says “This was my first gun, I couldn’t wait to shoot up the neighbourhood’, this quote shows how Moore has been very familiar with guns and even enjoys them, but has a strong opinion on gun control. Moore uses this prior background knowledge of guns to gain ethos as the speaker, which makes his opinion more credible and valuable. Having credibility as the narrator of the text allows Moore to more easily persuade the audience of his view of gun control. In an interview with CNN Moore states ‘“we need gun control laws passed right away”, and “I refuse to live in a country like this, but im not leaving”. These statements show how Moore is willing to change and protest this issue, which builds more trust in the audience. Near the end of the film Moore takes two students that were shot during the Columbine massacre and protests with them, against K-Mart selling 9mm ammunition. He then interviews and discusses with the Director of K-Mart, which proves to the audience that he cares, and wants to fix this issue. This furthers his ethos as he establishes more credibility and trust in the audience. Once Moore establishes this credibility and gains trust from the audience he will be able to connect with them with a deeper understanding of the issue. This will help Moore to first inform them by using his knowledge, then he is able to start persuading the audience by establishing ideas and why we should change gun control laws. Moore has presented the text Bowling for Columbine where it allows for the audience to be informed of the issue of gun control and understand it before Moore starts exploring his ideas and opinions of how to fix this issue. Moore does this very well as he demonstrates knowledge of the topic to gain credibility, all while keeping the film informative and humorous, which allows him to provide a window into a different world to the audience.

Michael Moore also explores the social concern of fear mongering in the media by using pathos to emotionally connect with the audience and persuade them. Towards the later section of the film, Moore uses pathos to demonstrate how the media is contributing to the instillment of fear into the population. Moore uses the juxtaposition of Canadians with Americans to prove how the Canadian media does not sensationalise events, which limits fear and overall gun violence. This contradicting comparison of Canada and America demonstrates how the American media creates fear without giving any reason or meaning behind it, but the people still react, and believe guns are the only sure way of staying safe. Moore shows clips of the American media talking about the danger of a variety of things, like killer bees, the Y2K bug and razor blades in Halloween candy. The one thing similar with all of these is that they never happened, and were faked by the media to make the population fearful. Then Moore looks at the Canadian Media, and notices that their news isn’t fear mongering. Once Moore sees this he states “night after night, the Canadians weren’t being pumped full of fear”. Moore also debunks common misconceptions about why Canadians are less violent, like there are more white people in Canada, they watch less violent movies, and they have lower unemployment rates. Moore uses this evidence of Canadians still being a gun loving country, and overall similar to America, to juxtapose the Canadian media with America’s. By using pathos, Moore is able to emotionally connect with the audience as they feel the need to be informed of the issue once they understand that the media is making them fear something that does not exist. The emotional connection Moore establishes with the audience allows him to use the juxtaposition of Canada and America effectively. This helps Moore inform the viewers of the media's fear mongering. The text Bowling for Columbine is formatted in a way where it allows for Moore to inform the audience and gives them an opportunity to understand the issue before he presents ideas to change the perspective and views of the audience. This is done to a high standard as Moore provides a window into a different world as he effectively uses emotions to connect to the audience when he is informing and persuading the viewers.

Michael Moore uses rhetorical appeals in Bowling for Columbine when exploring the social concerns of gun control and fear mongering in the media, to inform and persuade the audience. Moore uses ethos when exploring the issue of gun control, to gain trust and credibility as the narrator and effectively present his ideas on the topic. He uses pathos to emotionally connect with the audience when exploring fear mongering in the media, as he juxtaposes Canada with America to communicate his ideas successfully. Michael Moore uses these rhetorical appeals to inform and persuade the audience on the social concerns, which allows him to effectively provide a window into a different world.