Obama Mama or the Man Inside Us?

“Obama in Your Heart”, well this article can be about none other then President-Elect, I mean President Barack Obama, but there's Title has more than Obama. It says "in your heart" as well. From reading the subtitle, we get the knowledge that Obama was able to get inside us a raise us up. Emily Yoffe wrote this article on Slate.com about how Obama used "elevation" to get to us, an idea which was created by a man named Jonathan Haidt. Jonathan coined the definition "Powerful moments of elevation sometimes seem to push a mental 'reset button,' wiping out feelings of cynicism and replacing them with feelings of hope, love, and optimism, and a sense of moral inspiration." What Haidt is trying to say is that when something the deeply touches someone happens, they totally forget about their problems and are rushed with joyous and potential-like feelings. Yoffe's article reaches to the reader in ways different for each reader. This article has many selections from that help the reader understand the idea of "elevation".

In class, we've discussed different ways to take a article or picture and to look at how the author tries to persuade us into believing what they believe. Yoffe is trying to make us believe that President Obama, used such methods of elevation to win over the people of the United States. She uses logos by giving factual information that is quoted from psychologists. She quoted Jonathan Haidt about his definition on the term elevation. She further qoutes him and others about their "coined definition" for elevation. The logos in this is that she's using factual information which isn't all her own opinion. By using logic of others, the piece isn't completely opinionated, and orientated from her own thoughts. Yoffe uses pathos, which makes the reader feel these emotions because those great people bring pride and accomplishment and that feeling of happiness. Throughout the article, she is basically commending people, while telling them how Obama won this election. The pathos in her writing is that she targeting people who voted for Obama and persuading them to believe that reason Obama won was the way he put himself into other peoples minds and hearts, while it mostly was the fact that knowledgeable Americans went out and researched their candidate.

This is really intended for all Americans because she targets those people that voted for Mr. Obama. She shows those people how he got inside his heart. This article compares to the Time Magazine article we read in class that depicted evil and good by using a figure like Adolf Hitler. She uses a big figure, in this case, Obama, to depict "our 'elevation' in the heart."