Question

Identify and analyze the prominent rhetorical features used by each orator in their speeches. Are these persuasive devices effective?
from Both speeches, “I Have a Dream” and “The Ballot or the Bullet,”

Answer 1

Answer:

Both orators effectively employ rhetorical devices throughout their speeches. Martin Luther King Jr.uses imagery to convey his thoughts, which is seen in these words: “One hundred years later the Negrolives on a lonely island in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.” In this line, the AfricanAmerican’s state is compared to a bereft island, surrounded on all sides by the rich, vibrant ocean,which represents white people. Another rhetorical device that King uses is repetition. He repeats words that he wants to emphasize;for example, he repeats the phrase “100 years” several times at the beginning of his speech. On theother hand, Malcolm X uses metaphors and satire in his speech to reach out to his audience. Hecompares those who “sit in” to chumps and cowards. He also creates a metaphor that a “second-classcitizen” is “nothing but a 20th century slave.” Both orators use allusions to motivate the audience. King alludes to the Founding Fathers andAbraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, while Malcolm X alludes to the freedom attained bypeople in Africa and Asia, and the means through which they achieved it, that is, nationalism.

Explanation: