Elder Holland's "Power of the Word"

Last Conference, Elder Jeffery R. Holland delivered the profound talk "None Were With Him." As I have posted before, his talk truly appealed to the emotions, therefore exercising a great use of pathos. However, I find that Elder Holland's talk was only as powerful as it proved to be by his powerful words and use of language tools.

As I have stated in my previous post:

Elder Jeffery R. Holland exercises the "strategies for creating an emotional appeal" through his vivid details and language. (W & R, pg. 66) He is able to "re-create an emotional experience in such a way that readers actually feel the associated emotion." (W & R, pg. 67) Now one thing to point out: to truly understand what the Savior did is incomprehensible. However, Holland is able to describe the life-ending journey of the Savior as completely as possible by the mere mortal human through imagery.

This vivid imagery of the final stages of Jesus Christ's life makes this message so concrete.

He continues to use emotional appeal strategies, all of which increases pathos in an argument, by using words such as solitude, withdrawal, loneliness, hopelessness, despair, anguish, brutality, denial, abandonment and betrayal. This diction creates a feeling of empathy toward Christ and all that he suffered. His argument is strong in the fact that the "perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing" (par. 13) NEVER deserved to be be treated in the ruthless way that he was. This argument easily allows the audiences' emotions to be aroused considering most people believe the innocent should not be punished.

The words of Elder Holland have now also become the narration to a video post depicting the final days of the Savior. Now with the addition of visual aids, the message becomes more vivid and therefore, more concrete. The clips shown is the video post causes one to feel great emotion towards the Savior, considering the images shown are painful and filled with sadness. One is able to better understand only a fraction of the inexpressible pain Christ suffered.

This imagery is expressed, for example, when Elder Holland states:

"With all the conviction of my soul I testify that He did please His Father perfectly and that a perfect Father did not forsake His Son in that hour. Indeed, it is my personal belief that in all of Christ’s mortal ministry the Father may never have been closer to His Son than in these agonizing final moments of suffering. Nevertheless, that the supreme sacrifice of His Son might be as complete as it was voluntary and solitary, the Father briefly withdrew from Jesus the comfort of His Spirit, the support of His personal presence. It was required, indeed it was central to the significance of the Atonement, that this perfect Son who had never spoken ill nor done wrong nor touched an unclean thing had to know how the rest of humankind—us, all of us—would feel when we did commit such sins. For His Atonement to be infinite and eternal, He had to feel what it was like to die not only physically but spiritually, to sense what it was like to have the divine Spirit withdraw, leaving one feeling totally, abjectly, hopelessly alone."

From this passage, I can create the this emotional scene because of the imagery. Since I create this, it brings a much more personal feeling to the topic.

Now to add to this, by setting such a sad, sympathetic tone, one automatically becomes drawn to the pathos that are created in such an speech. His diction and the sensitivity of the topic contributes to the set tone. This sensitivity is aided by the allusion of the life, crucifixion, and resurrection of the Savior Jesus Christ, which has a very tender place in the hearts of Christians.

Elder Holland's diction, imagery, tone, and allusion contribute to the great emotional appeal all those who hear his message experience. It is easy to see that pathos and other rhetorical proofs are best used when language tools are exercised effectively.