English 103 Section 20 Post 2

The image I've selected is a WWII US Army Airborne recruitment poster. This poster depicts a group of soldiers parachuting into battle and engaging an enemy. It has appeals to all four groups, ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos. It appeals to ethos because it says, “They’ve got guts” which establishes the credibility of the poster. By saying that phrase, it says that these men have guts, and if you have guts, you will join the Army Airborne as well. It appeals to pathos because of the dramatic pose and depiction of the soldiers in the poster. World War II was a war in which support in the home front was a crucial advantage the United States had over Germany. So to arouse emotional support for the war, the US Government set out to create posters like this and the famed “Rosie the Riveter”.  It appeals to logos in the same way it appeals to ethos. The “They’ve got guts” caption is an appeal to male machismo and male logic to have guts as well. It appeals to Kairos because it helped more men enlist in the airborne units of the United States Army, a timely occurrence. The airborne units experienced large casualties in almost every major campaign in the European Theater of WWII. These campaigns, including D-Day, Operation Market Garden, The Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of the Kaufering concentration camp, and the final occupation of Germany post-surrender, which included Hitler’s mountain lair, the Eagle’s Nest. All of these campaigns led the airborne units to suffer large casualties, and a poster like this is a great example of kairos because it came at a timely matter to recruit men for airborne units when they needed them most. Airborne units also had considerably more risks than regular army, as it obviously entailed parachuting out of an airplane into battle and the hours of training it took to become a parachutist. In conclusion, this poster was timely to say the least. All in all, this poster has great visual and rhetorical appeal.