What is Human's Greatest Strength?

Humans have many strengths. Out of all the strengths humans possess, emotion is the strongest in my opinion. Emotion is common among everyone, and there are many kinds of emotion. However, each and one of them have great influence and impact on people around them.

               Happiness represents optimism. Happiness spreads like a disease infecting everyone with the happy mood. When there are group of people who are depressed because of (I don’t know what) some reason and a person who is trying to cheer everyone up with his or her own happiness and joy, everyone will lighten up sooner or later. Emotion is a powerful strength. It is very influential. Even one person’s  emotion can affect multitude of people. However, it can be the direct opposite. Even at a party where everyone is having a good time, one person’s mood(perhaps the star of the party) may affect everyone present in the party.

               Emotion is not only strong in real life but also in novels. There are three ways for an author to appeal to the audience to establish a persona. Logical appeal, logos, is one thing, and ethos, personal appeal is another. However, the most influential of all is pathos, emotional appeal. When the author brings up an anecdote, it not only allows the readers to comprehend the content better but also to think of a situation in that person’s shoe. By reading the anecdote, the readers can sympathize with the person. It is also a very effective strategy that can rivet the readers’ attention.

               Emotion is not only effective in stories but also in speeches. The purpose of the story is to convey the author’s message, and the purpose of the speech is to persuade the audience. Think of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech for a second. His speech is solely about civil rights movements of African Americans, and this maybe a boring, hackneyed topic. What makes his speech different from others is that he effectively uses pathos to make his speech interesting.  He also uses analogies of his own to add taste to his speech to wholly make the speech his own. He talks about the adversities African Americans had to go through for centuries in the land of freedom. America, the land of freedom, ironically was segregating their inhabitants.  

               Emotions are also apparent in movies. In movies, the movie makers create emotional situations where audience can sympathize with. If the story line is continuous(not abrupt like some movies) and the actors are good(playing their role as if they were actually them), then some audiences(if they are emotional enough) will cry along with the actor. If this is achieved, the movie is then known to be a very good movie. Some will have catharsis effect just because it brought up a situation that reminded people of the situation that they were in.

               Emotion can move people. Even though a person is determined to do something, when someone else cries and goes against their decision, the person may change their opinion or even consider about changing their opinion. This is because people care about people around them and no one would want to make other people sad or disappointed. Even without force, emotion can persuade and influence people greatly.