Logos
Throughout Stiff, Mary Roach uses logic and facts constantly; she appeals to the reader using logic by using statistics and real life events that have occurred in America. To show one example of what cadavers are used for, Roach describes that "over the past sixty years, the dead have helped the living work out human tolerance limits for skull slammings and chest skewerings, knee crammings and gut mashings: all the ugly, violent things that happen to a human being in a car crash." (p. 87 Stiff) She explains that cadavers feel no pain, and they are used for car crashes to improve the vehicles for breathing humans. Another example Roach uses to tell what cadavers are used for is by expressing that cadavers were in reenactments of the crucifixion; she writes about one scientist, Zugibe, that "constructed a cross,.... Rather than crucifying corpses, Zugibe used[s] live volunteers, hundreds in all..... Zugibe was using leather straps." (p. 161 Stiff) This was another experiment conducted to further explain to scientists and religious believers what exactly happened to Jesus and what He felt on the cross. These are only some examples Mary Roach uses to show the reader what exactly happens to you when you donate your body to science, and she also uses emotion and humor to relate to the reader more.