There is a commercial running on television currently that you may have seen. The narrator says “This man has almost learned to walk” and it shows a man using crutches to help him scale a steep set of stairs. The commercial is about people who ‘almost’ donate to causes, and where that almost gets the people who need the help.
The commercial uses pathos (emotion) to appeal to human emotion by delivering a simple message with a strong verbal accusation. It is intended to accuse those who were going to donate to a certain cause, but for some reason never got around to it. The visual portion of the commercial says a lot by itself. The scene is stark and depressing with drab coloring. It looks like the man’s legs hardly work at all. The commercials message: there should be no “almost”.
So many people can relate to this commercial. I’ll think of how many times I almost did something. I almost tried out for Jazz band last year. I almost auditioned for Tartuffe. I almost continued with concert band last semester.
The point is almost gets you nowhere. Almost volunteering, almost doing your homework, almost being kind to another human being….
Almost the same as being almost progressive, right?
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