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Rhetorical Analysis Of Jane Addams Speech

Decent Essays

The rhetorical devices found in the speech that Jane Addams wrote are hypophora, metaphor, conduplicatio, enumeratio, and personification. Each of these devices has a purpose in the passage, with the author combining all of the devices to strengthen her essay. The most frequent rhetorical device in the passage is Hypophora, which is when the author asks and answers a question. The author first mentioned hypophora at the beginning of the passage to ask what makes a great man. She later shifts toward an example of a great man, George Washington. The author then asks what makes George Washington a great man, while also asking how he would handle today's conflicts. The author chooses to use hypophora to emphasize what the United States is missing in today’s society. She uses George Washington's life as a soldier, statesman, and a Virginia planter to show what parts of his personality are missing in today's society. Addams asks questions such as “What is it that we admire about the soldier?”(Addams 1)“What was it he did, during those days when they were framing a constitution, when they were meeting together night after night, and trying to adjust the rights and privileges of every class in the community”(Addams 1) “ Would he not have foreboded evil if he had know that among us were groups and hordes of professional politicians… not using our forsight and our conscience in order to find out this great wrong which was snapping the foundations of self government.(Addams 2) The

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