Is the Vietnam War a wise choice? Martin Luther King Jr., the famous leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement, stated his opinion that it was totally wrong to start that war. Meanwhile, in order to strengthen his opinion, rhetorical devices, such as parallel, contrast, irony, personal anecdote, quotation, were utilized in his speech, which made his speech more persuasive and evoked the audience to stand by his side Throughout the whole passage, the use of contrast presented two extreme opposite sides, which highlighted the difference and conflicts between what is shown on TV screens to the reality of the society; the rhetorical device of parallel showed strong artistic expression of contend, which strengthened the speaker’s point of view concerning how the miserable situation the poor are facing with; it is the personal anecdote illustrated an undeniable truth of his own experience of convincing angry young men that described his opinion
vividly and clearly; the quotation, “To save the soul of America.” took use of a prestigious motto to reinforce the authority of his speech, which made his opinion much clearer. All these rhetorical devices appealed to the audience’s emotions and better convinced them to agree with his point of view.
With no doubt, the speaker clearly stated his protest to this war by adopting contrast and parallel. Undoubtedly, in the form of repeating the similar sentence structure, parallel shows strong artistic expression of content, which highlighted the speaker’s opinion so that the audience could deeper impressing and understand the ideas of the speaker. Martin Luther King Jr. utilized the form of parallel in the sentences “And so we…in Chicago.”, wh ich exposed the hypocritical surface of the information from the TV. Also, the use of contrast which compared the enormous difference between what is shown in the media and the reality emphasized the miserable
future for the poor people involved in this war. These rhetorical devices do highlight the speaker’s opinion of opposing Vietnam War and leave deeper impression and understanding of the ideas of the speaker among the audience. Absolutely, the speaker successfully gained his audience’s agreement by usi ng these rhetorical devices.
Moreover, the unique word choice added colour to the content of this speech as well. The word choice of “eviscerate” which magnitude the extent of the damage not only made his speech noble and solemn, but also inscribed the idea of the program’s intense destruction into his audience’s mind. By this way, the speaker made the audience realize the tremendous devastation of the hope of the poor due to Vietnam War validly.
In conclusion, the speaker used a various range
of rhetorical devices which made his speech particularly impressive successfully to convince his audience to oppose this war.。