TOW #15 "The 3 Most Important Things in Life" (Section Two)

In the second section of his essay, The 3 Most Important Things In Life, Harlan Ellison transitions into a much more serious tone, while still playing off of his token sense of humor that was established in the first. His answer to the seldom pondered question of what the most important things in life are is very different than most other people's beliefs. He devotes the entire second section to violence, sandwiching it in between sex and labor relations. Although Ellison is an acclaimed writer both in the form of novellas, short stories, and screenplay- this is not enough to establish his credibility as someone who can reveal the true most important things in life. In order to gain the ethos needed in order to actually get his audience to buy into what he is saying, Ellison relies on anecdotes, and a very conversational way of writing.  

In this section, Ellison shares an anecdote in which he and a good friend of his went to go see a movie in New York. In the middle of the movie three people began to argue in the section in front of Ellison and his friend. As the situation escalated things got violent, causing one of the people arguing to get pushed off of a balcony. Rather than trying to aid the severely injured, if not already dead, person, the people in the theater just continued to watch the movie. In the conclusion of the section, Ellison writes, "Genuine, mindless violence is very important. Because there is no knowing when it will strike. And there is no escaping from it." This anecdote is essential to achieving his purpose as it exemplifies the point he is trying to make about violence perfectly. He demonstrates, through his personal experience, the importance and inescapable nature of violence. In addition, he is able to establish his credibility even further because it is a story of something he actually lived through and therefore he has the utmost authority on it. He continues to play on this with the conversational, often humorous tone that he uses. He mimics the men in the theater, using a range of swear words and very casual slang. By doing this, he creates an open dialogue between himself and his readers.