Manipulation Tactics in Thank You For Arguing by Jay Heinrichs

Many books and pieces of literature lurk with hidden arguments and manipulation tactics to help get their point across best. Thank You For Arguing by Jay Heinrichs dives deep into these manipulation tactics and how influential figures use these arguments and techniques to get what they want. Heinrichs goes through several different techniques used in the art of arguing. These techniques are used all around the world including in the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. A Long Way Gone is about a young boy named Beah going through an active revolution in the war-torn country of Sierra Leone. Beah faces numerous struggles as he battles for survival in his country. Beah struggles to come back from his traumatic events after losing his family. There are many arguments in Beah’s story. In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah argues against child soldiers by using pathos and logos.

Ishmael Beah uses pathos to argue against child soldiers. Pathos is the act of using emotional appeal to manipulate the audience into believing your claim. In Thank You For Arguing Heinrichs states a good way to persuade someone: “A person’s life persuades better than his word”(40). In this quote, Heinrichs states that life enlightens someone more than words ever could. This is exactly what Beah does, he puts his own life on display rather than just displaying words to get his argument across.  Ishmael Beah uses his tragic childhood to perfectly manipulate people’s emotions using pathos.  In A Long Way Gone Beah states how his childhood was taken from him: “My childhood had gone by and my heart had frozen” (126). Ishmael Beah describes how his childhood was stripped from him due to the effects of being a child soldier. This excerpt leaves readers empathetic and lets readers sit on the repercussions of being a child soldier. Beah goes deeper into the tragic effects of being a child soldier by explaining how his humanity was taken from him. Moreover, in A Long Way Gone, Beah states how killing changed nothing: “I shot as many as I could, but I didn’t feel any better”(122). Beah kills for vengeance, hoping the pain in his heart would stop, ultimately it changed nothing. In the end, Beah lost his humanity and was left with nothing but pain. Readers feel sorrowful for Beah as he dives deeper into misery while trying to fix his problems. Which further supports Beah’s argument against child soldiers

Ishmael Beah also uses logos to support his argument against child soldiers. Logos is the use of logic to appeal to an audience into believing your claim. Additionaly, in Thank You For Arguing Heinrichs explains how to use logos:” Logos is argument by logic, its techniques use what the audience itself is thinking”(40). In this passage, Heinrichs describes how logos is used. Heinrichs explains that logos is a good way to connect to people in simpler terms using logic. Beah uses logos to connect to readers in a more comprehensible way. Furthermore, in A Long Way Gone Beah states a never-ending cycle of revenge that has occurred because of him: “I joined the army to avenge my family, If I take revenge, I will kill another person whose family will want revenge and revenge will never come to an end”(199). Beah uses a logical statement to explain the consequences of his revenge. Beah says that if he does manage to get his revenge and kill someone then the family of the deceased will also want revenge, resulting in a never-ending cycle that will cause nothing but vengeance. This statement leaves readers in agreement that taking revenge will only cause further destruction for the country, further supporting Beah’s claims.

In the end, Ishmael Beah uses pathos and logos in order to support his claim against child soldiers. Beah uses pathos by portraying his awful time as a child soldier leaving readers filled with empathy for him. Furthermore, Beah uses logos by including logical statements that will have readers agreeing with his statements.  Thank You For Arguing by Jay Heinrichs outlines the persuasive strategies used in A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. In conclusion, Beah filled his book with manipulation tactics so that no child will ever have to go through what Beah had endured in the future.