Rhetorical Devices Defined with Practice
Name:___________________________________________________________ Date:___________ Period:_____
Last class we discussed rhetorical appeals. Without looking at the previous handout, define the rhetorical appeals below:
Logos:
Pathos:
Ethos:
Rhetorical
Techniques
1. Repetition
2. Parallelism
Example
Definition
Today, as never before, the
fates of men are so
intimately linked to one
another that a disaster for
one is a disaster for
everybody.
--Natalia Ginzburg
I went to the park, he ran to
the store, and they swam to
the boat.
Repeating the same words of
phrases in a sentence (or
throughout a work) for
emphasis or to make an idea
clearer.
3. Rhetorical
Question
Are we ever truly free?
4. Anaphora
Here I am. Here you are.
Here we sit.
5. Asyndeton
The bird flew, sat, sang.
6. Polysyndeton
The bird flew and sat and
sang.
7. Hyperbole
I’m so hungry I could eat a
cow!
8.
Understatement
“This isn’t so bad…” said the
man whose parachute
wouldn’t open as he was
plummeting towards the
earth.
Try it out!
The use of grammatically
similar or "equal" parts of a
sentence--repeating the same
grammatical structure within a
sentence.
A question to which there is
NO answer, or to which the
answer is incredibly obvious.
Used to manipulate the
audience's thought process.
The repetition of a word or
phrase at the beginning of
clauses (or sentences) which
follow each other.
The lack of a conjunction
between parts of a sentence
(usually a list).
Using multiple conjunctions
(no commas) between parts of
a sentence (usually lists).
Extreme overstatement that
cannot be taken literally (you
cannot actually eat a cow!).
A statement which makes a
thing or situation smaller,
worse, or less important that
it actually is.
NOTE: Rhetorical appeals are like literary elements, and rhetorical devices are like literary devices. Usually, when you
write a rhetorical analysis you discuss the devices, just like when you write a literary analysis you discuss the devices!
Step 3: Beatty’s Speech: Beatty makes a speech to convince Montag to...
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Directions: To practice identifying rhetorical appeals and devices, let's take a look at Beatty's speech! Read and annotate
the speech for rhetorical appeals, rhetorical devices, and literary devices--consider HOW these devices are
manipulative/persuasive. THEN discuss these with your table, and finally with the class!
Annotations:
"Now let's take up the minorities in our civilization, shall we? Bigger the population, the
more minorities. Don't step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers,
merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second generation Chinese, Swedes,
Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The
people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual
painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less
you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minor minorities with their navels
to be kept clean. Authors, full of evil thoughts, lock up your typewriters. They did.
Magazines became a nice blend of vanilla tapioca. Books, so the damned snobbish critics
said, were dishwater. No wonder books stopped selling, the critics said. But the public,
knowing what it wanted, spinning happily, let the comic books survive. And the three
dimensional sex magazines, of course. There you have it, Montag. It didn't come from the
Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no!
Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. Today,
thanks to them, you can stay happy all the time, you are allowed to read comics, the good
old confessions, or trade journals."
1
5
10
15
"Yes, but what about the firemen, then?" asked Montag.
"Ah." Beatty leaned forward in the faint mist of smoke from his pipe. "What more easily
explained and natural? With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers,
grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and
imaginative creators, the word `intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it
deserved to be. You always dread the unfamiliar. Surely you remember the boy in your
own school class who was exceptionally 'bright,' did most of the reciting and answering
while the others sat like so many leaden idols, hating him. And wasn't it this bright boy
you selected for beatings and tortures after hours? Of course it was. We must all be alike.
Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal.
Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to
make them cower, to judge themselves against. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house
next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind. Who knows who
might be the target of the well-read man? Me? I won't stomach them for a minute. And so
when houses were finally fireproofed completely, all over the world (you were correct in
your assumption the other night) there was no longer need of firemen for the old
purposes. They were given the new job, as custodians of our peace of mind, the focus of
our understandable and rightful dread of being inferior; official censors, judges, and
executors. That's you, Montag, and that's me."
Now let’s watch the modified speech. Note appeals and devices as they come up (as well as irony!).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0bVqgBSZHk
20
25
30
35
Final thoughts:
*How are rhetorical devices and literary devices similar? How are they different (or are they different)?
*Do you think other artists attempt to persuade audiences? How?
*How is the scene of Fahrenheit 451 that we watched linguistically persuasive (think literal vocal tone)? How is it visually
persuasive?
Want some extra practice?
Nervous about the irony/rhetorical appeals and devices quiz coming up? Use the following questions and key to help
you study!
1. Lines 4-6 ("The people...anywhere.") include an
example of which of the following?
A. Understatement
B. Dramatic Irony
C. Rhetorical Question
D. Polysyndeton
E. Asyndeton
4. Lines 20-24 ("'Ah'... to be.") contains an
example/examples of all of the following EXCEPT?
A. Rhetorical Question
B. Logos
C. Pathos
D. Parallelism
E. Anaphora
2. Line 9 ("Magazines...tapioca.") includes an example of
which of the following?
A. Metaphor
B. Simile
C. Repetition
D. Anaphora
E. Asyndeton
5. Beatty includes the devices in lines 20-24 to imply...
A. that is it is obvious that readers are superior.
B. that books create dissatisfaction with the
government.
C. that firemen have come into existence
because society naturally demands their
presence.
D. that thinkers are superior to doers.
E. None of the above.
3. Lines 12-16 ("There you...journals.") include an
example/examples of which of the following?
I. Logos
II. Ethos
III. Asyndeton
A. I only.
B. II only.
C. I and II.
D. I and III.
E. I, II, and III.
6. The "loaded gun" that Beatty refers to in line 30 is...
A. an actual gun.
B. a metaphor for the firemen.
C. a metaphor for the danger of desiring
equality.
D. a hyperbole meant to explain the danger of
books.
E. a hyperbole meant to imply peaceful protest.
Key:
1. E
2. A
3. D
4. E
5. C
6. D