The goal of this argument is to get the redheaded girl to stop sulking and put on a happy face. The audience is the redheaded girl—let’s call her Sally. The essential claim of Albert’s argument is that putting on a happy face will make Sally’s sad thoughts go away. His reason is because putting a smile on her face will cause her to actually be happy. Therefore, the implicit assumption is that whatever actually makes you happy also makes your gloomy thoughts go away.
Alfred uses several tools to form his argument. Firstly, he appeals to ethos. He tries to get her attention by stating his authority: “Little girl, this is an adult speaking!” But this appeal to his so-called authority does not work on his audience, so he takes a different route. Also, later in his argument he calls upon his previous experience with the subject matter “I knew a girl so gloomy… she wouldn’t listen to me, now she’s a mean old thing.” And this builds his credibility. More often than ethos though, Alfred appeals to Sally’s pathos. He acts silly and makes her laugh in order to achieve the ultimate goal of “happy face.” There is sufficient content for the audience. Alfred makes several statements of how gloominess does not become sally, and that she will be better off being happy. One major issue with this argument is that it is not very relevant. Sally is upset because she will be too old for Conrad Birdie when he gets out of the army, and Alfred does not address that at all during his argument. The argument is relevant in that the girl is sad, and he addresses that, but the root of her sadness will still be there as soon as Alfred leaves.
His argument is obviously effective. The girl is smiling and dancing along by the end of the argument. I think that in real life, if this was not a fictional musical, that his argument would not be as effective because he fails to address her main concern. However, considering the audience and the unique situation, his argument is effective.
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