THE FOCUS OF THE SCENARIO IS <B>ETHOS</B>. IN THE LONG VERSION OF THIS SCENARIO YOU WOULD WALK THROUGH ZOCALO, MEXICO, AND EVENTUALLY MEET SOR JUANA. FOR THIS DEMO WE WILL TAKE YOU DIRECTLY TO HER.
You awaken to a dimly lit room, the face of a young woman only inches from yours. She turns to speak to someone out of your line of sight.
“He wakes.”
“Excellent,” another woman’s voice answers. “I am going to assist with the rosary tonight, I will leave him to your care.”
For a while, all is quiet. You want to ask Caliban 9 your handy, handhels AI what happened, but you know the young woman must be close. After your head clears a little, you look around. You seem to be in a small library. Books line every wall, at least the walls you can see. A small desk, what they used to call a secretary’s desk, is pushed into one corner. The young woman sits at the desk, reading a book. Looking at her habit, you realize for the first time that she is a nun.
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Retrato_de_Sor_Juana_In%C3%A9s_de_la_Cruz_%28Miguel_Cabrera%29.jpg/200px-Retrato_de_Sor_Juana_In%C3%A9s_de_la_Cruz_%28Miguel_Cabrera%29.jpg" width="300" height="400" alt="">
“What are you reading?” you ask.
“Ah, you must be feeling better.” She brings you a cup of water and raises your head so you can drink.
“I am reading Augustine’s <i>City of God</i>. He is very open about his former life, the mistakes he made. He was the chair of rhetoric at Aleppo. In Confessions he refers to that position as the ‘Chair of Lies.’ Later, he admits that rhetoric is useful for spreading the truth. He writes that we should not leave this tool to the pagans. I had not decided yet which Augustine I should believe.”
“You are not sure of his logic?”
She smiles at you. It is a winning smile and you can’t help but smile back. “Of his ethos, I think. That is what I am not sure of.”
Over her shoulder you see a portrait of her as a serious young girl. From the way she is dressed, you surmise that it must have been painted before she became a nun.
<img src="http://www.mexonline.com/culture/images/sorjuana-joven.jpg" width="200" height="250" alt="">
She follows your gaze and says, “Vanity of vanities, indeed. At least I was back then. Yet, even then I was more interested in books than I was in suitors. Now, married to Jesus, I have as much time for books as I wish.” She pauses. “At least for the time being.”
“Is something wrong?”
“I should not share my personal I difficulties with a complete stranger.”
“Sometimes a stranger is the best person to talk to. They don’t have any preconceptions.”
She laughs. “There is truth in what you say. Perhaps.”
She goes back over to her desk and stares at the open book, but doesn’t seem to be reading. “Perhaps,” you hear her mutter to herself. Finally, she starts talking, softly at first, but becoming more animated as she warms to her story.
“A friend, or who I thought was a friend, heard me talking about a sermon by Antonio Vieira and asked me to write a letter criticizing the theological fallacies Vieira made. In the past, this man promoted my studies and search for knowledge, so I obliged. He then published the letter without my consent under the pen name, Sor Filotea de la Cruz. That letter has caused so much controversy. The worst part about this was that he wrote an introduction to the letter cautioning me about continuing my studies, of writing of any kind, and to abandon the masculine field of theology. He has shown me a great deficiency of ethos.”
“I admit, I am no friend of Manuel Fernandez.” You hesitate, unsure what it is sufficient to reveal. You push on. “Why do you think he did this?”
“This I do not know. Forgive me Heavenly Father, but it angers me so. Some praise me, but many condemn me because I am a woman who pursues knowledge. They doubt that I can learn; but how do we discover truth without study?”
“So,” you reply, “What do you plan on doing?”
“I am writing a letter, even though this is what brought me to so much difficulty the first time. I am calling it my ‘Respuesta.’ I was placing the finishing touches on it when they brought you here. Let us try this, I will reveal my ‘Respuesta’ to you as a test of your good sense. We can make this a sort of game, a challenge if you will. I will read you excerpts and ask for your reasoning about the ethos of my argument.
“Now, I am actually writing this letter to Manuel Fernandez de Santa Cruz in response to his actions but I am addressing it to 'Sister Filotea de la Cruz' and will refer to myself as 'the poet'. Perhaps I am being overly clever. But, there is a purpose to this cleverness. What rhetorical device am I using here. Come, this is the simplest question I shall ask you. So, no time to consider. What device am I using?
[[The Device]]
IF YOU WERE PLAYING THIS GAME IN CLASS EVERY TIME YOU REACHED A CHALLANGE SUCH AS THIS ONE, YOU WOULD BE ASKED TO STOP UNTIL EVERYONE IN YOUR TEAM REACHED THIS POINT IN THE NARRATIVE. THEN, YOU WOULD DISCUSS THE THREE ANSWERS AND DECIDE AS A TEAM WHICH TO PICK. ONLY ONE MEMBER OF THE TEAM WOULD CLICK ON AN ANSWER, AND WOULD REPORT TO THE REST OF THE TEAM.
PLEASE MAKE CHOICE.
[[“You’re using irony.”]]
[[“This is a syllogism.”]]
[[“It is an allusion.”]]
Sor Juana laughs. It is a delightful laugh that says you are right. “But of course. I am being ironic. But, why should I do that? What do I get out of being [[ironic]]?Sor Juana closes her eyes and wrinkles her nose. “You are not jesting are you? Remember, we are talking about ethos. A syllogism is always a matter of logic, of logos. For instance, I might write:
“Women can think as well as men.
Sor Juana is a woman.
Sor Juana can think as well as a man.
“That is a syllogism.”
“I’m beginning to think she can think better than a man,” you mutter.
She gives you a bow. “Please, try again.”
Back to [[The Device]] Sor Juana frowns. “Come now. An allusion? Have you forgotten your lessons? An allusion is a quotation or oblique reference to a work of literature without directly stating so. For example, when you looked at my portrait earlier, I said, “Vanity of vanities,” which is an allusion to the opening passage of <i>Ecclesiastes</i>. If you did not recognize it, that tells me you snoozed through your catechism. Then, allusions are so much more satisfying when no one recognizes them. But this was not an allusion. Try again.”
Back to [[The Device]]
AGAIN, IN CLASS, YOUR TEAM WOULD DISCUSS THESE ANSWERS BEFORE CHOOSING ONE. EXPIENCE POINTS WOULD BE GAINED OR LOST FOR RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWERS.
“It enhances your ethos because it illustrates your [[good character]].”
“It illustrates your ethos because with irony there is a [[hidden meaning]].”
“It sets up an ironic defense of your abilities and allows you to [[disagree]] without condemning.”
“I’m afraid, were I your teacher, I’d have to take a switch to you. Fortunately for you, I am not. No, irony does not illustrate good character. At best, it suggests the issue may be less important than others hold it. But, that is a precarious position to take. Yet, I am taking it. Go back again and see if you can decipher why.”
Back to [[ironic]]
“There is certainly hidden meaning. I am saying one thing and I mean another. That sounds like a liar, doesn’t it? Still, those hidden meanings aren’t really hidden. They are obvious, are they not? When I refer to him in the feminine, perhaps I’m simply being ironic, or perhaps I’m suggesting that he does not think in the masculine as much as he thinks he does. In other words, I am questioning his ethos. Then, I refer to myself as the poet. I am giving myself some leeway. I make no claims to be a theologian, which is his greatest objection. So, if I am honest with you, I’d have to admit that you are at least half right. Still, there is more. Why not go back and try again?”
Back to [[ironic]].
Sor Juan claps her hands. “Excellent! I am using irony in a similar manner to Socrates “Apology” as reported by Plato. I am employing verbal irony to place my accuser in a bad light without accusing him of ulterior motives, which I have come to suspect. Socrates referred to himself as Athen’s ‘gadfly.’ With this he sought to explain why he was constantly troubling the Athenians without accusing them of being the immoral people they actually were. Ethos, he understood, can indicate how you present the audience to itself as much as how you present yourself to the audience. I follow this little bit of irony with greater irony, when I write, ‘And so I entrust the decision to your supreme skill and straightway submit to whatever sentence you may pass, posing no objection or reluctance, for this has been no more than a simple account of inclination to letters.’ You see, I am all too reluctant. But I cannot reveal that reluctance, nor can I bring myself to simply lie. Irony allows me to do both.
“But I follow this overly eloquent introduction with a simple statement. I write, ‘I learn because I must.’ How does this contribute to my [[ethos]]?”
STOP. THERE IS ONE CORRECT ANSWER. (4 experience points if you get it first. 2 points if you get it second. No deductions. (These are some sneaky ones.))
“It shows that you are [[credible]], that there are reasons you want to know more.”
“It illustrates that you have an [[inherent ]] need to learn that others should not deny.”
“It reveals the [[power]] of knowledge in one’s life to overcome negative situations.”
She shakes her head ruefully. “If there were credible reasons then I should list them. And, I do so later in the letter. But keep in mind, here I am stating my ethos, what is inside me, which is part of my character, my person, who I am. Whatever reasons I might marshal would be outside myself, and though important, not ethos. Surely you can come up with a better response.”
Back to [[ethos]].“Ah, there is power in knowledge. However, as Socrates himself illustrated when he drank the hemlock, that power does not always overcome the external world, which is what I think you mean by ‘situations.’ In fact, there are times that our knowledge actually makes it more difficult to cope with the external world. Again as Socrates illustrated, true knowledge all too often places us at odds with those who think they have knowledge, yet do not.”
Back to [[ethos]].“Your use of the word ‘inherent’ is apropos. To say ‘I learn because I must’ is to say that learning is an essential part of who I am. It is who I am. This is not something I can simply lay aside without laying who I am aside. That is true ethos, is it not, exposing the inner core of your being, this time without irony?
THIS IS THE CORRECT ANSWER. THIS SCENARIO GOES ON, BUT THIS IS THE END OF THIS DEMO. THANKS FOR PLAYING.