SAM'S SPEECH


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEMdXhfO-Wk&NR=1


A:You (Frodo)
B:can accomplish your task
Reason: b/c you will hold on to the good worth fighting for.
IA: Whatever helps Frodo to accomplish his task will also help him hold on to the good worth fighting for.


Audience:
Frodo, charged with the responsibility of destroying the ring, is weighed down and close to giving up.  Sam directs his speech to him in the movie.  Sam's speech is generally applicable, but is used to persuade Frodo that he must fight to keep going and accomplish his task.


The goal:
To persuade Frodo that he must not give up.  He wants Frodo to understand that the darkness that they have faced and will face will pass if he just keeps fighting for it.


How the argument is made:
Sam simplistically appeals to the emotions through pathos as he invites Frodo to remember childhood stories.  He made a point to say that the stories that really mattered are the ones that involved darkness and danger and the two being overcome in the end.  He creates a relationship with Frodo through Ethos in mentioning this point, as they are both facing a rather dangerous and dark task themselves. Thus Sam's argument is relevant as well as typical as he and Frodo are both in a similar situation and know the stories he alludes to.  Obviously, Sam's appeal to Frodo's emotions is the strongest tool in his argument.  Filling Frodo with hope of victory and giving him a motive to keep fighting is exactly what he needed in his downtrodden and overwhelmed state.


Is it effective?


I believe it is.  Sam's speech was very moving and heartfelt.  Right before his speech is given, Frodo nearly kills him, having forgotten everything Sam goes on to remind him of.  Sam gives his argument in a simplistic way that appeals to Frodo on a very deep level of friendship that Frodo had suppressed through the length of his journey. It brings him to a remembrance not of their bleak reality, but of a hope he once believed in.