Charles M. Blow writes a direct and simply stated article not only about the loss of Florida A&M's Robert Champion to hazing, but about his own experience of hazing personally. Everyone knows that hazing happens in schools, more often than not high schools and colleges. But, sometimes, the hazing you see in movies is not as bad as some of the hazing stories in real life. Last year, I remember hearing about the Needham girls' soccer team putting their freshman on dog collars and leashes and running them around the field...appalled? So was I. Charles M. Blow's story is far worse than the Needham girls' soccer team, and so is Robert Champion's. What I don't get is that Florida A&M knew of the hazing and was warned of it, yet they did nothing. Now the result is a dead student. How could they ignore such a warning, turn a blind eye, and not do anything. If the school knew about the hazing, then Robert Champion's death could have easily been prevented. Maybe fifety years ago hazing could have a blind eye turned away from it, but when the result today is death, you can't just ignore it.
The rhetorical techniques used by Charles M. Blow in his New York Times article "The Brutal Side of Hazing" have a strong appeal to the pathos and ethos of the audience. The pathos appeal is of the entire issue of hazing and how tragic it is that a boy died at its hands. However, the main technique Blow uses is of his own personal experience of hazing when he was in college. The amount of physical abuse and detail with which Blow writes is riveting and heart-breaking at the same time, really appealing to the pathos of the audience. This technique also allows the audience to make connections, if any, to similar situations of hazing, like I did with the Needham girls' soccer team. The ethos appeal is that when he writes about his personal run in with hazing, he establishes his creditability with the issue because he has been there and gone through it. Overall, two truely sad stories, one of which could have been prevented in Charles M. Blow's "The Brutal Side of Hazing".
Source: Blow, Charles M.. "The Brutal Side of Hazing." The New York Times 9 Dec. 2011, sec. Opinion: n. pag. The New York Times. Web. 10 Dec. 2011.
This is so sad to hear. I think that hazing is becoming a bigger problem but is being taken care of quicker and better than bullying. Schools and Universities need to punish students who who haze.
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