A Brief Invective of Fictional Example (Encomium of the others)

After reading the explanations of examples in Chapter 5 (rhetorical, historical, fictional, analogy, similar and contrary), I have come to believe that fictional example (along with fable) is one I would NOT employ. It is by far the weakest of the examples. It is silly to assume that adults would buy in to an example given about something which only exists in someone else’s imagination. Now I know this is placing a certain amount of intelligence and cynicism into a potential audience of mine (perhaps even devaluing their imaginations), but I would take it personally if I was an audience member and a rhetor used an example similar to the one provided in ARCS (p.176-177). The example provided basically supposes that because people generally liked pop culture fictional films such as E.T. and Alien, scenes and examples from these movies could be used to persuade people into believing that aliens are friendly or hostile, respectively. I do understand, however, that fables are to be used when there are no historical parellels (176).

The only instance in which this type of example should be used, is with children. Naturally children like stories, they like fictional characters and so this method is especially useful in advertising. In fact this may be the most effective method with children as they may not comprehend the other types of example. When targeted at adults, a company who uses fictional characters such as Geico or the Mr. Peanut character may be disregarded as silly (particularly if the adult does not have children).

A Brief(er) Invective of Enthymemes (Encomium of Examples)
At this point I would also like to take on Aristotle for preferring enthymemes over examples. "Modern audiences are ordinarily impressed by examples," (ARCS, 181) is one reason that I believe Aristotle’s use of enthymemes and syllogisms are not as effective for use in today’s society. I feel as if enthymemes can be used too generally and can result in assumptions rather than certainties. For example: Michael Jordan, Hank Aaron, Jerry Rice are the greatest athletes of all time. Michael Jordan, Hank Aaron, Jerry Rice are African-Americans.All African-Americans are great athletes. I actually find it difficult to produce my own enthymeme which makes sense, so I hope the one I provided above is an accurate or correct enthymeme. I guess in summary, I am fond of examples (as Aristotle was too, except his was more of a second-place fondnes). I look forward to discussing this chapter tonight and I hope I get to express my fondness of examples in some way.