Running Head: CIRCUS CRUELTY 1

General Analysis: Circus Cruelty on Performing Animals

Jacqueline Fuentes

University of Texas at El Paso

Ashok Bhusal

Rhetoric & Composition 2

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Circus Cruelty on Performing Animals

When you attend a circus, it might be all fun and games for the attendees themselves, but

it is not so fun for the animals participating in the show. A lot of the circus attendings are not

aware of the abuse that these animals are put through because of the display that they paint for

us. There is many organizations that have tried to put a stop to the circus cruelty that has been

happening for years and years without end. We will be analyzing one of these organizations

website to see what type of genre and rhetorical devices they use to convince the audience to

take a stance against animal-based circuses. This organization is called “PAWS: People Helping

Animals.” We will also be analyzing a cartoon called “Okay, okay, we'll give you better

conditions.” by Wilbur Dawbarn. We will be comparing the website and cartoon and decide

which one does a better job persuading the audience of the issue.

Audience and Purpose

The audience and purpose for both the typography and iconography are the same. The

audience for both types of genres are circus attendings. When people attend the circus, what they

see is not what happens behind the curtains. Behind the curtains there is abuse and the neglection

of animals. The purpose is to inform people about the truth of circus and their mistreatment to

animals that the circuses try to hide from the public. Another possible purpose for the

iconography would be to show circus workers that the animals deserve much better conditions or

to be released into their natural habitat once and for all. If conditions don’t get better, the purpose

could also be to try to convince the audience to boycott circuses indefinitely.

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Rhetorical Issues
The rhetorical devices that are used in both genres are Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. These

three rhetorical devices are used to deliver the topics more efficiently, but not both genres use all

three equally.

Ethos
Ethos is one of the three modes of persuasion used to convince the audience of a specific

idea. Ethos is used to show the credibility of the author. The typography is written by an

organization that is dedicated to the help of animals, but this does not mean that their information

can be easily trusted or is reliable. Although their website is jam-packed with information on the

topic, we as an audience have to be careful what we choose to believe and possibly make some

research of our own from resources we know are reliable and accurate. On the other hand, the

iconography lacks ethos tremendously. Because it is a cartoon, it does not provide us with any

signs or statements of credibility from the artist.

Pathos
Pathos is the attempt to persuade an audience of an idea through appealing to their

emotions. The typography uses this rhetorical appeal strongly in their website. Right of the bat,

the website uses pathos in their title. “Enjoy the Circus? The Animals Don’t.” The title itself

appeals to the emotion of guilt; or so it would to most people. The guilty feeling would come

from remembering the various times that you might have attended the circus but did not realize

how badly the animals were treated. Pathos is also shown by including Lota’s story located in the

bottom of the website. The reading of the personal story of an elephant and his/her experience in

the story conveys a lot of pathos within itself. It reveals the feeling of sympathy for the animal

and sadness that they would get treated in such a horrible way. These feelings of remorse could
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be so strong that they could convince the audience of attending animal-free circuses instead. The

iconography conveys some sort of victory or pride feeling for the animal. It could convey the

feeling of proudness towards the animal taking a stand for their rights to be treated fair, even

though the cartoon can’t possibly occur in real life. Although workers could be in a situation

where they find themselves being trampled by an elephant, the possibility of a worker being held

down by an animal until the agreement of better conditions are extremely small.

Logos
Logos is the use of logic or reason to convince an audience. This involves the use of

statistics, history on the topic, facts, etc. The typography genre uses logos thoroughly in their

article. The article is full of facts and the more that you read, the more knowledge you receive

about the unfortunate cruelty these animals are put through to do abnormal acts for their species.

Not only does it talk about the animal cruelty the animals embark on, but the typography also

states that “96 percent of their lives are spent in chains or cages.” In addition, this article gives

the fact that tuberculosis (TB) is carried by circus elephants and poses a threat against the circus

attendees. The iconography on the other hand, does not show logos whatsoever. The reason for

this is because the iconography is simply a cartoon of an elephant insisting for better conditions

from an employee. It only shows what it would have to take for these animals to be treated the

way that they should be treated.

Structure and Delivery

The structure and delivery were completely different between both genres. In the

typography, the structure was in an article format with words and sentences trying to spread the

cruelty of circus animals. In the iconography, there was no structure. The reason for this is

because it is a cartoon. The cartoon is separated by two separate drawings, the bottom one having
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words coming from the ring master to convey the message that the elephant was trying to

receive. The delivery is different as well. The delivery of the typography is by an organization

website, (PAWS: People Helping Animals), and the iconography cartoon is delivered by the

cartoonist Wilbur Dawbarn.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the website did a really effective job of presenting the issue of circus

cruelty to the audience by using all rhetorical devices equally. Although we can not assume that

it is a credible source without self-research, it did appeal to the emotions and gave us a handful

of facts. The cartoon on the other hand lacked the use of rhetorical devices. It does not assure us

of credibility and it does not give us any facts. It does appeal to our emotions, but this is a very

small amount of emotions that are affected. The website did a better job than the cartoon of

showing the issue of circus cruelty to the audience.

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References
Dawbarn, W. (2009, March 10). 'Okay, okay, we'll give you better conditions.' Retrieved from

https://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?catref=wda1279

P. (n.d.). PAWS - People Helping Animals. Retrieved from https://www.paws.org/get-

involved/take-action/explore-the-issues/circus-cruelty/