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The Cincinnati Zoo Mother Deserves Empathy, Not Judgment


There is a news about a 4-year old boy fell into a gorilla enclosure at the zoo, and after being dragged around by the 400-pound gorilla for 10 minutes, the zoo made the decision to shoot and kill the gorilla (Courtney Perry). After seeing this news and people's reactions, Courtney Perry wrote an article about it. A lot of people think the zookeepers made a wrong decision, which they should not have killed the gorilla. Because they think they that the gorilla did not do anything wrong, the mom who did not take good care of her own child deserved everything. But the author Courtney Perry said, "Can you imagine watching someone you love in the deathly grip of a predator, being thrown around like a rag doll, and standing by helplessly". She used pathos here to make her readers feel empathy to the boy and the mom, and made everyone wants to save him.

Her argument is reasonable, because when we put ourselves in the mother's shoes, we will understand the mom and why the zookeepers killed the gorilla but not just let the situation "play out".

After reading her article, I understand why the mother deserves empathy, but not judgment. Yes, the gorilla is innocent and he did not do anything wrong. But in that situation, the zookeepers had no choice. Everyone makes mistakes, the mom did not know what was going to happen, either. When the mom was worrying about her child and in deep self-accusation, they had to save the boy.
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Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 5, 2016 at 4:43 PM

    I fully agree with Ms. Perry and her use of pathos in this article. Since this incident, there have been countless cases of people standing up for the "injustice" they believe has occurred, all the while accusing the boy's mother. I believe Perry's writing is able to show many that as humans, the life of another human is what is most important in a situation such as this. By striking a chord of pity within the readers; causing people to imagine themselves and their own loved one's in both the boy's and mother's position, they are more accepting of the death of the gorilla.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LexieOctober 5, 2016 at 5:00 PM

    I agree with this post. The mother should be shown empathy because it was not her fault that her child accidentally fell into the gorilla's cage. Obviously the mom did not want her child to be thrown around by a gorilla.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 6, 2016 at 7:29 AM

    This is a really great blog post. It is sad that this had to happen, but human life is far more important than another animal's life. It must have been a tough decision to shoot Harambe, but I think that anybody would have done the same thing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 6, 2016 at 5:00 PM

    The entire "Harambe" movement has gotten out of hand. It's terrible that some do not realize or do not even care that real people were involved. It is sickening to hear derogatory phrases about a mother whose child is in a life and death situation.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousOctober 6, 2016 at 6:40 PM

    I agree with this post. The mother should be shown empathy, there was nothing she could do to control whether or not her child fell into the cage. She didn't ask to be thrown into that situation, it simply happened. It wasn't her fault so she shouldn't be blamed. The post shows that she should be shown empathy and that is defiantly true

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jason R.October 7, 2016 at 5:27 AM

    The blog post is well written in that it provides background and talks about the article. In the article being discussed it is obvious that it uses pathos. I would have mentioned that it didn't really make use of the other means of persuasion.

    ReplyDelete
  7. UnknownNovember 4, 2016 at 4:17 AM

    This article was definitely good. And I agree with it. The mother made a simple mistake. Pathos in this article is also used very good.

    ReplyDelete

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