Examining Totalitarianism: Control and Governance Exposed

Theo Finigan starts by establishing an innocent relationship alongside readers in his persuasive argument. He wants to show a writing style that is meant to show credibility toward his readers as well as establish his credentials as an author. He focuses on totalitarianism, which can be defined as requiring complete conformity toward the state. He argues against totalitarianism through his entire essay by pointing out the issues of totalitarianism as a government structure. He focuses on control that totalitarianism has on the characters during the whole essay. The problem he identifies is everything that goes wrong in his life as well as the totalitarianism leadership that is occurring.

Totalitarianism: Flaws and Control in Government

With the problems established, he believes he is a thread that connects the various stories discussed. In order to accomplish his purpose, he appeals mainly to readers who understand politics without needing further explanation. He believes that his essay does need further information on totalitarianism because of the assumptions about readers made in his essay. He also appeals to those in higher education, people who are educational scholars would understand this essay and not feel confusion. If he would include further information, it would allow more readers access and understanding to his argument. In order to make his essay appeal to more readers he would need to further explain the political information that is assumed by readers.

By doing this, it would allow more readers to understand the main argument Finnigan is working to establish. In his essay, the main argument he addressed is to show the flaw in a political party. He wants to establish there is a lack of trust and honesty in this political party. He uses ethos to appeal to his readers. Ethos can be referred to as logical fallacy that is used to establish the credibility and trust of the author as well as the essay. This allows readers to feel trusted in his work while establishing credibility to his essay. We see ethos when looking at the author who is an accomplished professor at the University of Alberta. This information makes ethos a contributing factor to his essay.

The author also includes logos, a logical fallacy that appeals to the logic behind an argument and an author. He uses several quotations and references in his work for readers to understand the logical reasoning behind his argument. The logos and ethos used in Finigan’s essay makes it harder for readers to disapprove of the argument he is giving. In his essay, the main argument against his thesis is that totalitarianism allows for control. He refutes this argument by finding quotes and references that show both sides of the argument. This allows readers to look at both sides of the argument and decide which side has the better argument. He can do this because of the references and quotations that strengthen his argument verses the counter-argument. Finigan using a lot of references and quotations allows the argument to be strengthened in general. The fact that he uses both the argument and the counter-argument in his essay gives the reader more credibility toward the argument he is trying to make against totalitarianism.

Comparing Totalitarianism and Colonialism

Finally, he concludes by making the point of comparing colonialism and totalitarianism while finding similarities between the two types of government. Overall, the argument Finigan makes is effective because of the variety of sources and references used. The sources he uses allows readers to further credit him in his argument. He has a well thought out argument that has been backed up. The use of logos and ethos in his argument only strengthens his argument. I believe this argument is strong due to the various ways Finigan argues his points as well as the research used to support his argument.