A Guide to Rhetorical Devices and Appeals

RHETORIC R H E TO R I C A L D E V I C E S ALLITERATION • Repetition of the same sound beginning of words • Ex: –“Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.” (The Beatles Let it Be) –“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” (Joni Mitchell Big Yellow Taxi) –“Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance, fivehour phone conversation?” (Train Drops of Jupiter) ALLUSION • an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly; an indirect or passing reference: • Ex: – “This place is like a Garden of Eden.” – This is a biblical allusion to the “garden of God” in the Book of Genesis. – The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora’s box of crimes. – This is an allusion to one of Greek Mythology’s origin myth, “Pandora’s box”. – “The two knitting women increase his anxiety by gazing at him and all the other sailors with knowing unconcern. Their eerie looks suggest that they know what will happen (the men dying), yet don’t care” Referencing the Fates in Greek Mythology (Conrad Heart of Darkness) ANAPHORA • the use of a word referring to or replacing a word used earlier in a sentence, to avoid repetition, such as do in I like it and so do they. • Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or line • Ex: – “What the hammer? what the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? what dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp?” (William Blake “The Tyger”) – “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.” (Winston Churchill “WWII Speech”) ANASTROPHE • Transposition of normal word order • Ex –“Yoda Effect” – Yoda I am. – Patience I lack. –" Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing." Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven“ –A roast is what we will have for dinner. ANTITHESIS • a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else • a figure of speech in which an opposition or contrast of ideas is expressed by parallelism of words that are the opposites of, or strongly contrasted with, each other • Ex: – Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins. – Speech is silver, but silence is gold – “Hot ‘n Cold” Katy Perry ASSONANCE • Repetition of vowel sounds in non-rhyming words • Ex: – Men sell the wedding bells. – “Those images that yet, Fresh images beget, That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea.” (W. B.Yeats Byzantium”) – “Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among the oldest of living things. So old it is that no man knows how and why the first poems came.” (Carl Sandburg Early Moon) CONSONANCE • Repetition of consonant sounds within words or ending words • Ex: –She ate seven sandwiches on a sunny Sunday last year –“A Quietness distilled As Twilight long begun, Or Nature spending with herself Sequestered Afternoon— “ (Emily Dickinson As imperceptibly as Grief) REPETITION • A literary device that repeats the same words or phrases a few times to make an idea clearer • It could be a word, a phrase or a full sentence, or a poetical line repeated to emphasize its significance in the entire text • Ex: – Oh, the weather outside is frightful, But the fire is so delightful. And since we've got no place to go, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Oh, it doesn't show signs of stopping, And I've brought some corn for popping. The lights are turned way down low, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne “Let It Snow”) HYPERBOLE • exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally • Ex: – Your suitcase weighs a ton! – He was in such a hurry that he drove his car at a bazillion miles per hour. – “Well now, one winter it was so cold that all the geese flew backward and all the fish moved south and even the snow turned blue. Late at night, it got so frigid that all spoken words froze solid afore they could be heard. People had to wait until sunup to find out what folks were talking about the night before.” (American Folklore Babe the Blue Ox) HYPOPHORA • a figure of speech in which the speaker poses a question and then answers the question. • Ex: – “Thirty-one cakes, dampened with whiskey, bask on window sills and shelves. Who are they for? Friends. Not necessarily neighbor friends: indeed, the larger share is intended for persons we’ve met maybe once, perhaps not at all. People who’ve struck our fancy. Like President Roosevelt.” (Truman Capote A Christmas Memory) – “What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” (Kurt Vonnegut Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage) JUXTAPOSITION • the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect: • Ex: – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…” (Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities) METAPHOR • refers to something as being the same as another thing for rhetorical effect. • may provide clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas. • Where a simile compares two items, a metaphor directly equates them, and does not use "like" or "as" as does a simile. • Ex: – The assignment was a breeze. – The skies of his future began to darken. – “…and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you …” (E. E. Cummings “i carry your heart with me”) METONYMY • A figure of speech in which one thing is replaced with a word closely associated with it • The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant • Ex: – Suit = for business executive “Those suits don’t know what they’re talking about” – “I’m mighty glad Georgia waited till after Christmas before it secedes or it would have ruined the Christmas parties.” *Scarlett uses “Georgia” to point out everything that makes up the state: citizens, politician, government etc. It is a metonymy extremely common in the modern world, where a name of a country or state refers to a whole nation and its government. Thus, it renders brevity to the ideas. * (Margaret Mitchell Gone with the Wind) – “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” *ears for attention* (William Shakespeare Julius Caesar) PARALLELISM • The arrangement of words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures placed side by side, making them similar in form • Ex: – Like father, like son. – Easy come, easy go. – He came, he saw, he conquered. – “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” (Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities) RHETORICAL QUESTION • a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer: • Ex: – “Did you hear me?” – “Are you paying attention?” – Shylock: “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” (Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice) SIMILE • A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind using like or as. • Ex: – Our soldiers are as brave as a lion – He is as cunning as a fox. – At exam time, the student was as busy as a bee. – Othello: She was false as water. Emilia: Thou are rash as fire, To say that she was false: O she was heavenly true. (William Shakespeare Othello) SYNECDOCHE • a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa • Ex: –Cleveland won by six runs. *meaning “Cleveland's baseball team”* –“His eye met hers as she sat there paler and whiter than anyone in the vast ocean of anxious faces about her.” *Faces refers to people in the crowd* (Frank R. Stockton The Lady or the Tiger?) TRICOLON • consists of three parallel clauses, phrases, or words, which happen to come in quick succession without any interruption. • Ex: – “After this great liberator is laid to rest, and when we have returned to our cities and villages and rejoined our daily routines, let us search for his strength. Let us search for his largeness of spirit somewhere inside of ourselves. And when the night grows dark, when injustice weighs heavy on our hearts, when our best-laid plans seem beyond our reach, let us think of Madiba and the words that brought him comfort within the four walls of his cell …” (Barack Obama speaks in Memorial Service for Nelson Mandela, December, 10, 2013) – “You are talking to a man who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe.” (L. Frank Baum The Wizard of Oz) UNDERSTANDING ETHOS, PATHOS, AND LOGOS ETHOS = ETHICS • Greek for the word character. • Refers to the trustworthiness or credibility of the writer or speaker. • Ethos is often conveyed through tone and style of the message and through the way the writer or speaker refers to differing views. • It can also be affected by the writer's reputation as it exists independently from the message--his or her expertise in the field, his or her previous record or integrity, and so forth. • The impact of ethos is often called the argument's 'ethical appeal' or the 'appeal from credibility.’ • Effective arguers not only possess good character, but also argue in ways that reveal that good character. • Your test of evidence can establish your ethos, or credibility, as well as that of your sources. LOGOS = LOGIC • Greek for word. • Refers to the internal consistency of the message-the clarity of the claim, the logic of its reasons, and the effectiveness of its supporting evidence. • The impact of logos on an audience is sometimes called the argument's logical appeal. • Focus on the facts! PATHOS = EMOTIONS • Greek for suffering or experience. • Appeals to the audience's sympathies and imagination. • An appeal to pathos causes an audience not just to respond emotionally but to identify with the writer's point of view--to feel what the writer feels. • In this sense, pathos evokes a meaning implicit in the verb 'to suffer'--to feel pain imaginatively. • Pathos thus refers to both the emotional and the imaginative impact of the message on an audience, the power with which the writer's message moves the audience to decision or action. • Passion, not logic, stirs most people. Use carefully! “Sob stories” should be avoided.