The understanding of persuasion analyzed in Cicero’s oration can be seen across many contemporary artifacts, but Blackfish is an artifact where persuasion is working at its best. Blackfish is a documentary that was released in 2013 by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. This documentary tells the story of killer whales in captivity, with a large portion of the story surrounding Tilikum. Tilikum is an orca that has severely hurt or killed several trainers while in captivity.
The documentary’s website states that the film aims to, “challenge us to consider our relationship to nature and reveals how little we humans have learned from these highly intelligent and enormously sentient fellow animals”(Synopsis, n. p. ). Blackfish works to expose the multi billion-dollar sea park industry by hitting at people’s emotions of pity and shame to persuade that keeping these animals in captivity is inhumane.
With a mix of interviews and archived footage, Blackfish pu the viewer in an impartial perspective to show how the audience could come to believe that it is morally wrong to keep these beloved sea creatures in captivity as a result of understanding how to use persuasive efforts for a particular cause. The concept of persuasion was previously explored in the analysis of Cicero’s Catilinarian oration, but can be thoroughly applied to Blackfish. Persuasion is the act of convincing someone to believe a certain set of beliefs or ideas, which is done so using good will, logic, and emotions.
The filmmaker’s understanding of persuasion is evident throughout the documentary, with an emphasis on the use credibility and emotions. The understanding of persuasion is used in this context to demonstrate the relationship between expository power and the motivation to change. Ethos, a rhetorical appeal coined by Aristotle, is concerned with the good will of the speaker. This appeal assesses the speaker’s credibility to see if they are knowledgeable enough to be speaking about a certain topic.
Ethos was previously applied to Cicero’s oration and how he used his goodwill and credibility to maintain a favorable portrayal of him as a person of political power. Blackfish uses ethos to persuade the audience that the information provided to them is coming from trustworthy sources. Both Cicero’s oration and Blackfish rely on instilling a sense of trustworthiness in the audience to work in favor of the creator’s persuasive goals. Ethos is evident in Blackfish with the slew of credible sources that were invited to share their expertise on killer whales and their experiences interacting with those animals.
The entire documentary consists small anecdotes from a variety of orca trainers that were former employees of different sea parks mentioned in the documentary. The stories told by the trainers enhance the effects of persuasion because you are hearing the information straight from the horse’s mouth. People are more inclined to believe these stories because they are first hand experiences being told directly from the people who experienced them, thus making the sources credible. These anecdotes can relate to Cicero’s doctor and general metaphors.
The necessary force of exposing the negative invoked by the filmmakers upon the sea park industry is aiming to heal the problem by calling attention to the inhumane treatment of orcas and calling for the public to intervene. Both roles of the general and doctor are calling attention to a problem with the willingness to do some harm in certain situations for the greater good of the orcas. In addition to information provided by former trainers, there were a variety of other credible speakers featured in the documentary.
To name a few, there was Dave Duffus, an OSHA expert witness and whale researcher, Ken Balcomb, the director of the Center for Whale Research, and Howard Garrett, an orca researcher. Adding in the opinions of people who have dedicated their lives to the protection, training, and study of killer whales reinforces how the expository nature of this documentary is determined to incite change. Ethos works hand in hand with pathos in Blackfish to persuade the audience. Pathos is another rhetorical appeal coined by Aristotle, but this appeal focuses on using emotions to persuade.
Each time a different trainer or expert is sharing their experiences or opinions, it is accompanied by video footage of the whales. Video footage is shown of orcas being caught in the wild to be brought to the sea parks. You are watching these animals struggle for their freedom, but they are essentially helpless. There are also videos shown of mother whales producing high range vocals that were never heard before when crying for their babies that were separated from them. To top it all off, there are graphic videos of trainers being attacked by the whales, sometimes resulting in fatal injuries.
All of these eyeopening examples appeal to people’s emotions because they are actually being shown what happens as a result of these sea animals being held in captivity. Seeing these events occur as the trainers speak about them makes people pity the animals and reinforces that the cruelty is real and that whales are suffering in captivity. Not only is it the accompanying pictures and videos that appeal to people’s emotions in an attempt to persuade, but also what the credible speakers are saying.
A former director of Sealand spoke of how the orcas were punished when they didn’t train well and that they would deprive them of meals because of their behavior. His account clearly exhibits that the Sealand staff committed acts of animal cruelty, which coming from someone who used to run the park, it will hit the viewers harder and make the information trustworthy. The words of former trainers really speak to people’s emotions because they too are showing remorse and shame for participating in animal cruelty.
Multiple trainers spoke of how guilt-ridden they are for what they have done when working at sea parks, but also how certain things hey were required to do or say for their job did not align with their morals. You can hear how the trainers feel through their anecdotes, but it is intensified by their facial expressions. More often than not, the trainers broke eye contact with the camera when confessing their feelings of pitiful shame and became teary eyed. The messages of the credible speakers and graphic imagery hits on emotions of sadness, anger, and disgust for the viewers and motivates them to adjust their attitudes on the position or even to start a movement to change the treatment of these animals.
Ethos and pathos work together to persuade by opening the audience’s mind through addressing a negative topic that they have not put much thought into, but also aims to inspire real world action. The filmmakers’ understanding of persuasion brings light to an impartial observation about the sea park industry, while focusing on the persuasive relationship between the film’s expository power and its ability to incite change. As a result of the expository documentary, many viewers have taken to protesting and boycotting the sea park industry.
Due to the backlash from the public, SeaWorld has drastically altered some of its decade long policies, such as ending orca breeding at all of its parks. Persuasion exhibited in Blackfish through the rhetorical appeals can show how certain messages can push people to make a change in reality. Both Cicero’s oration and Blackfish are works that effectively use elements of rhetoric to persuade. Although they are both persuading against different things and for different reasons, they are both using rhetorical appeals to work in favor of their arguments while demonstrating the understanding of persuasion and the effects it can have on society.
The concept of persuasion has been first identified in Cicero’s Second Catilinarian Oration and been analyzed as to how Cicero’s understanding of persuasion is at work in his speech. The concept of understanding persuasion was then applied to the documentary, Blackfish, and explored the filmmakers understanding of how the rhetorical appeals work in favor of a persuasive message. These analyses demonstrate how persuasion can be applied under a multitude of circumstances and how its elements are altered to apply to different situations and events.
Although the motives of both of these artifacts was to persuade, it is the way in which the persuasion tactics were carried out that show how different messages require different tactics in order to successfully persuade. Persuasion can be used to exercise power over others thoughts and can even extend to altering their actions. Both works used their understanding of persuasion in efforts to expose, control, and instigate societal changes. These analyses have revealed that persuasion is not a simple matter of changing someone’s thoughts, but rather an extension to action in order to have a larger effect on the greater good of society.