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Rhetorical Analysis Of The Ballot Or The Bullet

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April 3rd 1964. It was on this day that a string of words strutted into the air, welded together to become one of the most empowering speeches ever presented to mankind. The words flooded from the mouth of activist and minister Malcom Little, better known as Malcom X. With the use of several techniques, Malcom X is able to create a striking speech that is remembered by many and replicated by few. The speech of black oppression fighting for rights. “The Ballot or The Bullet.” Reading between the lines of the words of the speech can reveal Malcom X’s brilliant scheme and intelligent structure. With the use of alliteration, anaphora, allusions, parallelism, a strong rigid tone, accusations, wise diction and the defacing of other strategies, X captures the attention of the audience and consistently persuades them that they are part of the solution. “Whether you're educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you're going to catch hell just like I am. We're all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell from the same man.” Here he establishes that he is fighting for the same cause as the audience, that they are all together in the same boat which tunes into the audience’s emotion. Once the emotional …show more content…
His diction is wisely chosen as it is intelligent yet understandable, which presents that he is educated but can address the average person. The speech is loaded with tone that is rigid, at some points even angry and he directly addresses the audience with powerful imagery and accusations. He defaces the use of peaceful protest and states that there are two options, either proper human rights, or violence. He projects his words with confidence, words that together will go down in history as one of the most empowering speeches ever spoken into

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