(August, 2009). Asthma. Topnews health. Retrieved April 22, 2009, from the Google images database.

This is a picture of a child who obviously has asthma, using an inhaler. For some of us this shows the harsh reality of asthma. Many young children need inhalant medicine to live a normal life. The people who would put this picture out would most likely be people who have children with asthma. Their intent would be to show, just by this picture, how scary asthma can be. For the general public, who is the audience, this picture is frightening because it can be pictured all to easily with our own children in that same position, needing an inhaler.

This picture seems to address both pathos and ethos. By pathos, it addresses our emotions. It is often easily thought that elderly people need medicine and it is easily accepted. But this picture makes the viewer think of children needing medicine. Children are supposed to be young and healthy! Their lives are just starting out, they shouldn’t be needing to stop experiencing life because they cannot breath! The realization of this through this picture can make the audience surprised, upset, or simply sympathetic.

But this picture also applies to ethos in some ways. Ethos is our sense of trust. Most people in the United States have great faith in medicine. Ethos applies to this picture in two ways. First, that the medicine will work. Trust that there are medicines available to help so that this boy can live a normal, active life. Second is that because of advances of medicine and miraculous discoveries in medicine, our child will never be in the same position this one is. It gives an appreciation for medicine.

As a person having grown up with asthma, this picture brings back memories. It was because of medicines, such as the inhaler shown in the picture, that I could live a normal life. I never worried about suddenly not being able to breathe. Asthma causes more worries for parents than children in a lot of ways. I am convinced that this picture will show that asthma is a very real disease in children, and while the children are reliable on medicines, the medicines do work and children live a normal life.