Download “The Scarlet Ibis” Pages 315 – 323

The Rhetoric of Revolution
(1) In addition to George Washington and his army, who else is credit given to for the United States
gaining independence from Britain? What did these people do?
Credit can also be given to powerful writers and speakers such as Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, and Thomas
Jefferson, for they were all highly skilled in rhetoric, the art of persuasion.
(2) List three types of persuasive appeals.
(A) appeal to reason, logic and evidence
(B) appeal to emotions, such as fear, pride or hate
(C) ethical appeal, or persuasion based on what we ourselves, moral philosophers, or the majority of
people in our culture think is right
(3) The term “rhetorical devices” is just another name for persuasive devices.
(4) List and define the five types of rhetorical devices used during the Revolutionary Period:
(A) figurative language: language that is used for descriptive effect
(B) hyperbole: a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion, to make a point, or to
evoke humor
(C) rhetorical questions: questions to which no answer is expected
(D) parallelism: the use of a series of words, phrases, or sentences that have similar grammatical form.
(F) connotative language: the suggested or implied meanings that are associated with a word
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------RESPONDING AND THINKING CRITICALLY
(1) What answers is Patrick Henry expecting to his rhetorical questions quoted on the bottom of page
104? Explain.
Henry does not expect answers. He asks the questions to point out that the colonists are now as strong as
they will ever be and that the longer they wait, the more control Britain will have over them.
(2) What connotation is suggested by Thomas Jefferson’s phrase “swarms of officers”?
Jefferson’s phrase likens the British soldiers to irritating and dangerous insects that need to be driven off.
(3) What message does the cartoon convey about a speaker’s ability to sway audiences?
The cartoon makes the point that speakers often express what their audience already feels.