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Rhetorical Devices In Let America Be America Again

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“Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men,” Plato said that and it could not be any truer. Rhetorical devices change things up, you can argue all you want but until you put some kind of rhetorical device in your speech you will change very few minds. Rhetorical devices have changed the way we argue our views. Pathos is something that is used in almost all literary texts. It is used in “Let America Be America Again” it says, “I am a poor white man, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- And finding only the same old stupid plan of dog eat dog, of mighty crush weak” (Hughes 1). Pathos is shown by showing how other people felt during this period. It makes the reader feel distressed or empathic if this was not in the text the whole poem would be just that, a poem. The author, Langston Hughes, probably put this in to show his feelings and view on the matter. Pathos is also used in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, “We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation’s only noncommunist revolutionary political force, the unified Buddhist Church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men” (King 156). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shows the other point of view of Vietnam, and what we have been doing to them during the war. This tactic the author uses makes us sympathize with the Vietnamese people. He is trying to get the people to stand up and do something about what is going on, by telling them what we are doing to them. This rhetorical device is one of the most powerful, the reason being, it works a lot like the puppy commercial. Sarcasm is another method used mostly to show their opinion on the opposing claim in a mean or annoyed tone. Another section of “Let America Be America Again” shows sarcasm saying, “The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay?” (Hughes 2). Hughes uses this rhetorical device to help his case that America

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