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Red Jacket Rhetorical Analysis

Decent Essays

In order to persuade his audience effectively, Red Jacket uses many rhetorical devices. One example can be seen when he states “We gave them corn and meat; they gave us poison [rum] in return.” (296) In this phrase, he uses a hyperbole because it is clear that rum is not truly poison in the eyes of many, but because the natives live such a modest and natural lifestyle, alcohol is frowned upon. By using this hyperbole, Red Jacket is able to create an image of how different the European lifestyle is from the Seneca’s. Furthermore, this phrase is most likely included to persuade the Europeans that it’s important to respect each other’s culture, and not force anything unwanted into one another’s society. In addition, the author incorporates parallelism

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