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Ali Valerio
Dr. Marinara
ENC 3315
31 October 2014
Pathos in Popular Culture
Stories have been told for thousands of years, and they are made up of many vast and
complex elements. Despite this, few would argue that emotion is one of the driving forces that
leads any strong story. It is also important in making an argument. Aristotle, one of the great,
well-known Greek philosophers, believed that emotion was an important aspect of creating an
argument, and he displayed this in the concept he created called the rhetorical triangle. As he
stated in his book Rhetoric, Part 1, Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word
there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second
on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third on the proof, or apparent proof,
provided by the words of the speech itself. (A Brief History of Rhetoric).
These modes of persuasion are also known as appeals. Aristotles first appeal is identified
as ethos; the second, pathos; and the third, logos. His second appeal is that which I will be
discussing in my essay. He talks about putting the audience into a certain frame of mind, and that
involves manipulating emotions. Another definition of pathos would be the texts ability to
establish a relationship with an audience, or how a writer will make an argument "matter" to
readers (Ethos, Pathos, Logos). As we can see, there is a close connection between pathos and
the audience (Pathos).
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In the entertainment world, pathos is absolutely crucial to cinema. The audience must feel
a connection to some aspect of the movie in order to find it enjoyable, and in the same way, that
enjoyment is key to its critical and financial success. Pathos is not always the driving appeal in a
film, but with the 2006 comedy-drama movie Click, this is certainly the case. Out of the three
appeals, the movies success relies on its appeal to emotion, or pathos. In this film, an
overworked architect struggles to find a balance between work and family, and he comes across
a special universal remote that allows him to control his life in a whole new way. However, soon
the remote begins to make decisions for him, and the main character fast-forwards through life
and neglects his family more than ever before. There is a strong lesson here about the importance
of family, and the movie uses pathos to convey this primarily through the events that unfold
surrounding his kids, his parents, and his wife.
At the beginning of Click, the year is 2006 and Michael Newman (the main character)
cant find time to play with his young children. In this early time of their life they enjoy
watching Dragon Tales and coloring, and they want him to finish the treehouse he started
building months ago, which he keeps saying he will finish. He misses his sons swim meet for
work, and he spends Fourth of July weekend on the phone with his boss instead of with his
children. Then he cancels a summer camping trip. As the disappointments get larger, Michael
finds the remote and uses it to fast-forward a year into his life, when he can get a promotion and
use the money to make his kids happy. Now, the kids want to watch CSI instead of Dragon
Tales, and Michael still hasnt finished their treehouse.
The remote fast-forwards ten years ahead to his next promotion, without his permission,
and he finds himself with two teenage children who begrudge their father. In all those years that
Michael skipped, he was only going through the motions of life and never paid any attention to
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his kids. In the year 2017, Michaels son Ben is overweight and low on self-confidence, and his
daughter Samantha is rebellious and boisterous. Michael is shocked to find how much they have
changed, and when he fast-forwards six more years in the future he finds that his son has lost his
body fat and become an architect after his father. His daughter has become very attractive. He
fast-forwards 17 more years to the year 2034, where he stumbles upon his sons wedding. Here
he has a heart attack and finds himself in the hospital, where his kids come to see him. Ben says
he will cancel his honeymoon with his new wife because of work, and Michael is desperate not
to let Ben make the mistake he did of putting his work before his family. With his dying breath
he tells this to his son. In missing out on the important events of his childrens life, Michaels
character communicates pathos and allows for a true connection with the audience.
The third aspect of the film which strong depicts pathos is with Michaels parents. In the
beginning of the film they are somewhat old, but they still have plenty of life left in them. At the
Fourth of July party in which Michael spends all the time on the phone with his boss, his father
spends time with Michaels children, his grandchildren. He shows a coin trick to Ben and says
that Michael has been trying to figure it out for years. When Michael first gets the special
remote, he uses it to skip through a boring family dinner with his parents. We dont see them
again until the year 2023, and its only when Ben tells Michael that his father has died. This is
one of the most emotionally charged moments of the film, as Michael is overwhelmed with
immense sadness.
He wasnt with his father when he died, so he uses the remote control to watch the last
time he saw him. At this time, his father surprised Michael and Ben at work, and Michael and his
father got into a very big fight. Michaels father left heartbroken, and the last thing he said to his
son was that he loved him. This is a major moment when Michael begins to realize the damage
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his has done in his life because of that remote control. He fast-forwards to his sons wedding,
and he sees his mother in a wheelchair, now incredibly old. Michael is very glad to see her, and
she tells him that his father would have loved to be there. This is the last we see of Michaels
mother, because of his heart attack at the wedding and his death shortly after. The aging of his
parents and the death of his father are major contributors to the pathos conveyed in the film.
Another way the movie uses pathos is through Michaels wicfe, Donna. In the beginning,
she is in love with her husband, but she is frustrated that she puts work before his family. He
doesnt make time for her, and they get into arguments about it. Michael uses the remote to skip
a fight, but shortly after that they make up. One year in the future, thanks to the remote, Michael
finds that he and Donna are in counseling. She is very angry about is passiveness over the past
year and how he has neglected her. When he skips forward ten years, in the year 2017, Michael
is astonished to learn that Donna has divorced him and his now dating their sons former swim
coach. Six years later, Donna has married the swim coach. The shock of losing his wife so
quickly, from his perspective, is another of the most emotional components of the movie. When
his daughter Samantha calls the other man Dad at Bens wedding, in 2034, this triggers
Michaels heart attack which leads to his death. As he lays dying, he makes peace with Donnas
new husband, but is still extremely sad that his ex-wife is no longer with him.
These three aspects of Michaels life are dramatically changed and mutilated to
manipulate the emotions of the audience. Michael misses the small parts of his childrens life,
and before he knows it misses out on their childhood and coming of age all together. He doesnt
treasure the time with his parents until its too late, and he misses the death of his father. He
argues with and neglects his wife, and ends up losing her to another man. These plot points reach
an emotional climax as Michael lays dying on the street, where hes surrounded by his broken
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family who resent his absence in their lives but still care for him. The lesson is in plain sight:
Michael didnt make family a priority in his life, and in the end he had to deal with the
consequences. All isnt lost for him, however, when he discovers that the passing of his life was
all a dream. After his apparent death, he wakes up in Bed, Bath, and Beyond where he found the
remote, and is instantly filled with joy when he discovers those events werent real. He runs
home a changed man and immediately promises to commit more time to his kids, who are still
little, parents, who are still alive, and his wife, who is still in love with him. The bursting
atmosphere of joy at the end contrasts starkly with the feeling of dread that surrounds most of the
movie, and it leaves the audience with a whirlwind of emotions. In this way, pathos is the reason
that this dramatic, heartfelt, passionate movie is so successful in brutally driving home the
message that family comes first.













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Works Cited

A Brief History of Rhetoric. Ravishing Ink. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2014.
Click. Dir. Frank Coraci. Perf. Adam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Walken. Columbia
Pictures Corporation, 2006. DVD.
Ethos, Pathos, Logos: The Rhetorical Triangle. Occc.edu. Oklahoma City Community College,
n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2014.
Pathos. Byu.edu. Silva Rhetoricae, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2014.