Overstatement In A Speech : What Is Overstatement?

King and X employed figurative language in their methods of persuading their audience. In King’s “I Have a Dream” speech he conveys the use of similes in the phrase, “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream,” in order to illustrate the need for justice until all are equal. He stresses the need of discrimination to end and for justice to let all nondiscriminatory in society. He used the negativity of injustice and turned it into a positive of justice being endless water that roars through a mighty stream that will forever be flowing. X also used similes to describe that all “negroes” are in the same boat and all will get the same treatment from the white man in the phrase, “…you’re going to catch hell just like I am.” He emphasizes that all “negroes” whether educated or illiterate or wealthy or poor will gain the same result of the hell that is being brought upon the by the same man who happens to be white. Both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X felt the lack of acceptance and the treachery being brought upon them by the white man in their use of similes.

“There is no such thing as a Mason Dixon line. It’s America. There is no such thing as the South. It’s America. If one room in your house is dirty, you’ve got a dirty house. If the closet is dirty, you’ve got a dirty house.” (X 4) By using metaphors throughout his speech he allows people to look at the problem or situation from there a different perspective. In conclusion, Malcolm X uses figurative language in his speech to get his message across to

6. A, Besides understatement, personification is one term that the author uses to create humor. An example of personification is when “the totem pole [sang] in the corner …” (Totem 122), which gave Walter a headache. Essentially, one way that could be humorous is that Walter’s day is not being a great day because of himself trying to get rid of the totem pole rather than put it back in the museum where it belongs. In fact, the totem started making noises because of some people in the museum not accepting the totem as appropriate Canadian art, not to mention even more noise being made by it when people like Walter wanted to remove the totem from the building. If people have left the totem alone and recognize it as art and therefore let it exist above in the museum rather than bury its significance in the basement, the totem would not have made noise given that the totem made even more noise when people tried to remove it from the building but less noise when people left it alone.

Perhaps one of the most visual examples is, “like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed.” Martin Luther King creates a vivid comparison of a boil to injustice though this simile. Both are disgusting, but must be cured by letting the wound breathe. While the smiles are impressive, equally abundant are Dr. King’s use of metaphors. “Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.” This quote actually contains two metaphors in one: the comparison of injustice to quicksand and the comparison of dignity to a rock. The use of personification in Martin Luther King’s writing has a breath-taking impact When King says, “the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us," the reader is given the imagery that an emotion is given the human-like characteristic of a shadow, making the idea of disappointment even darker than it already

* Metaphors: King uses numerous metaphors to provide a powerful link between the realities of the hardships faced by black

Metaphor: A metaphor can enhance and paint a more interesting and a more (vivid?) picture of what your are trying to explain. It easily conveys a message. For example if you say “It was Scary” the reader will not know how scary but if you say “I was so scared I felt like a mouse before a great

African American Baptist minister and activist, Martin Luther King, Jr., in his “I Have a Dream” speech, addresses racism against Negros and demands equal rights and freedoms. King’s purpose is to motivate his audience to join him in fighting for what they deserve. He shifts from an urgent, demanding tone at the beginning of the speech to a more hopeful and patriotic tone towards the end. Throughout the speech, Dr. King appeals to the audience’s desire to better their futures by utilizing figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, and rhetorical devices such as repetition and parallelism.

2. Hyperbole is the use of over-exaggeration to make a point. Find and write down the quote from Jilly Dos Santos that employs hyperbole. Does this line effectively communicate her feelings about the situation she faced? Why or why not?

Secondarily, metaphors, figures of speech where a word/phrase is applied to an object to where it isn’t literally applicable, are widely explored and used in persuasive writing. Thomas Jefferson used a collection of metaphors when writing the Declaration of Independence. In just the fifth sentence there is a metaphor used by Jefferson declaring, “ They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.”(Jefferson 5) . “Deaf to the voice of justice” is giving an object an inapplicable meaning , justice doesn’t literally have a voice, it’s used to sound more persuasive in trying to convince people that justice should be heard. Another metaphor used in the Declaration of Independence voiced , “building a wall of separation between Church and State.”(Jefferson 1) . By this statement he isn’t meaning an actual wall, unlike Trump, he is metaphorically speaking, meaning not literally. Metaphors are very powerful rhetorical devices and are really good at summarizing and simplifying difficult

One statement in particular that stood out to me was: “To yell “black-on-black crime” is to shoot a man and then shame him for bleeding” (111). Statements like these tell you more than simply what happened, but why it happened and how it will impact or result in other events; they give valuable first hand perspective on the oppression of African Americans throughout our history, and the effects it has on their communities. The term “black-on-black crime” is used sporadically in media, depending on the source. I already knew it was not a fair statement to use, and involved problematic wording, but the metaphor used to describe it gave me insight on it’s implications that I could not have discovered on my

In King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he imitates the use of metaphors to further appeal to the audience through

Within his speech given at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta in 1895, Washington shared his views on race relations and his belief that black should go to work to prove to whites that they would not be burdens to society. One of the most notable excerpts from his speech, is “in all things purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress” (Washington, 107). Some people thought that this simile alluded to an agreement with segregation and a settlement with the morals in that Jim Crow era. Likewise, the phrase “cast down your bucket where you are” was repeated many times throughout the speech. This sentence in particular could be interpreted many ways, by all races. For whites in the South, this expression acted as an offering of black

A metaphor, used as a communication skill, is best described in a political way. Think of Reagan’s Voodoo economics, or Bill Clinton building a bridge to the 21st century. Politicians can easily scam an ignorant voter, should one not understand a metaphor. For example: Clinton refers to building a bridge, but does not tell us with which tools he

Understatement, speaking of things as if they were less important than they are, is another tool Twain and Thurber use to add humor. "You fix up for the drought . . . and ten to one you get drowned. You make up your mind that an earthquake is due . . . and the first thing you know, you get struck by lightning. These are great disappointments" (Twain 523). Twain suggests that getting drowned or struck by lightning are just disappointments, while in actuality, these events are catastrophic. Thurber writes, "He just bumped you," after Muggs had bitten Mrs. Detweiler (529). Being an example of understatement, getting bit by a dog is actually much worse than just getting bumped.

A famous saying by Al Franken goes like “Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless its a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.” I think mistakes are necessary. It shapes you to become a better, wiser and a stronger person who is prepared to face further challenges as well.