Melendez 1

Julian D. Melendez

Samantha Ocena

WRI 1.107

10/30/18

Introversion & The Social World of Extroverts

The world is misleading and in itself is quite judgmental to those who peacefully live in

the life of silence. Susan Cain a former lawyer, negotiation consultant and now author of four

novels each depicting a shining a new light on introverts. In Susan Cain’s Ted Talk The Power of

Introverts, Susan makes the argument that introverts are cast off by society simply because

western culture is more interested in the enthusiasm and charisma found in extroverts compared

to the peaceful silence of introverts. Susan Cain constructs this argument by using a mixture of

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.

Susan Cain’s Ted Talk The Power of Introverts, begins with a story from Susan Cain’s

childhood one where she took part in a summer camp where her peers as well as camp

instructors found her introverted actions strange and unappealing while she herself found the acts

of silence and reading like a form of peaceful contemplative mediation that allowed her to create

new ideas; in doing so this created a form of internalized need to become extroverted, which lead

to her becoming a wall street lawyer. Moving forward Susan goes on to explain the qualities of

an introvert and why they are different compared to those who are shy. She continues to explain

how our contemporize extroverted culture creates conflict and lack of productivity in the life of

introverts such as in schools and the work place. Brining up many notable introverts such as

Jesus, Ghandhi, and Steve Wozniak Susan makes the point that figurative disconnection from
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society allows one to create, she moves on to explain the psychological aspects of introverts and

extroverts. Susan ends her Ted Talk with a story of her grandfather and with three calls of action.

Susan Cain uses Ethos throughout her Ted Talk in order to make her arguments credible

as well as appealing to the masses and the audience themselves; she does this by noting herself

as well as many famous historical, religious, and literary figures that were/are seen to be

introverted. By bringing up historical figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Gandhi

such is depending on the societal praise we give these figures and what they represent the

audience views her argument that introverts must be seen and treated equal in our society.

Looking towards historical figures and the reasons why they were chosen such as: Eleanor

Roosevelt’s status and image represent her diplomatic, patriotic, feminist strengths in the form of

political activism, Rosa Parks an older working class black female American who fought back

against white America in peaceful protest represents the strength one has in themselves in a time

of adversary, and lastly Mahatma Gandhi who inspired civil rights movements across the globe.

Looking towards religious figures Susan brings up Jesus Christ, and her Grandfather who was a

Rabbi. Brining up Jesus allows her to connect to a wide spread audience; Christianity being the

most practiced religion approximately 2.4 billion or merely looking at Jesus from a nonspiritual

point of view we still see that he was an individual of compassion and love just like Gandhi.

Susan herself being an attorney, novelist, negotiation consultant, and Introvert show that she has

an understanding on society as a whole and is able to fluently interpret that written or verbally;

being Introvert allows the viewer to trust Susan when it comes to introverted norms. Just like the

title and occupation of wall street lawyer and introvert made Susan seem like a trust worthy and

reliable source so did the use of naming such public figures.

Susan Cain uses pathos consistently in order to further hammer away her points, that

introverts deserve equal recognition and tolerance in today’s society. She mainly does this in the

form of storytelling, and jokes. As she tells the story from her childhood. The pushing away from

literature in order to fit in with everyone’s expectations of fun creates a pathway of empathy that

most if not all can relate to. The alienation of her personal interest and constant pressure from

outside sources can be seen to affect everyone on a personal level an example for many being

high school. This allows her to connect to the viewers emotionally and further her argument that

introverts are people too that have interest only that it’s not the same cookie cutter way other do

it. After this she makes a joke how the camp advisor misspells rowdy this allows the audience to

once again loosen up allowing her to further her arguments. she does this multiple time

throughout the video for this purpose is to captivate the audience’s attention.

Lastly, we have logos. Susan uses logos when she brings up the psychology behind

introversion, and when using examples such as the educational, as well as the work place

environment. When Susan discussed her school days she explained how students where set up

into rows in order to work independently and then set up into groups in order to work together to

construct the finalized idea, but now as she had stated schools are more group based educated

where the students work together without much time to organize alone this creates a place of

distress for introverted students because they have good ideas but lack the enthusiasm or

loudness of their peers which leaves them mute. Looking towards the work place environment

she explains how many businesses are removing the walls that separate workplace environments

from one another. The removal of the walls leads to a lowering of productivity from the

introverted group of individuals. These situations helps her argument because they are simply

true; school systems are set up for constant communication within peers, but it also lacks the
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ability for students who are introverted to express themselves or have a quiet place to reach their

fullest academic potential, as well as the work place environment there isn’t a place where

individuals can be alone which lowers the productivity in the work place from introverted

people. Looking towards the psychological aspect she goes on to say that most if not all people

benefit from absence of human presence. We as humans just like the ape mimic our preferred

social groups, actions, language and thought processes. She goes on to say that in order to be a

more productive and creative person we must occasionally separate ourselves from other people

in order to think. This aids Susan in her argument because psychologically speaking no one is

one-hundred percent extrovert or introvert it is a scale, this means all would benefit from a

slightly introverted life style than just livening in the extroverted world.

In Susan Cain’s Ted Talk The Power of Introverts, she makes the argument that

introverted people are not recognized in todays extroverted society; she uses a range of strategies

such as Logos, Pathos, and Ethos in order to create a convincing argument. She does this fluently

using jokes, psychological and social research, and an assortment of public figures, religious and

historical icons, and personal experience.