Within the speech, the rhetorical device arguably used the most to convey X's message is logos. Off the bat, X addresses the audience by saying that regardless of background, religion, or age, they have all suffered by the oppression of the white man. He goes on to give the layout of the House of Representatives and Senate as being two-thirds democratic, however not being able to pass laws as swiftly as they should about civil rights, being so. X also defines words and ties them into his argument to further support it. For example, his definition of a "Dixiecrat"is used to support his notion of racism still existing in the democratic party, with southerners essentially running the government with their seniority. X gives these definitions to enlighten the oblivious audience he has in front of him on the corruption in government. X also uses logos by using simplified cause and effect logic to also trigger reactions. He does this by saying that segregation is against the law, meaning any segregationist is a criminal, meaning that when you demonstrate against segregation, the law and supreme court are on your side. From point A to B, X essentially simplifies the idea that it is ok to fight back against segregation, as the law should be on your side. X also strategically weaves in pathos into his logos, as his definitions of the injustices that the government has done can easily make the audience of the speech become infuriated from the realization of the corruption.
-Yoseph T.
I agree and really enjoyed this post. You did a good job explaining and giving examples of how Malcolm X used logos throughout his speech. It was good that you gave the example of his definition of dixiecrat and related it back to his notion of racism in the democratic party. You also did a good job of relating the logos that he was using back to his objective of the speech. It really helped that you brought up how segregation was against the law and that he used that to tell people that it is okay to fight back against segregation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Savannah that you did a very good job in both explaining and providing examples from the speech to support your argument. I thought that mentioning Malcolm X's decision to define terms was a very good idea because it seemed like such an effective method of appealing to the logical nature of the audience. My only complaint about your post is that I did not your decision to refer to him as "X" instead of as "Malcolm". I understand that technically there is nothing wrong with this since X is his last name, but I just thought it looked a little unusual (especially when you said "From point A to B, X"). Other then the name thing (which may just bother me), I thought you did a very good job with your post.
ReplyDelete~Micah Plotkin
I agree with Savannah and Micah as his name in your post and giving an example of a defined term in the text. However, I think your analyzation would have been better if you included an example from the text of the context the term "dixiecrat" was used in. Other than that I think this is a very well done analyzation.
ReplyDelete-Nebeyu