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Frighting for a Choice
During Patrick Henry’s speech, “Speech in the Virginia Convention,” he not only uses ethos, pathos, and logos to get his point across; but he also uses restatement and parallelism. Patrick Henry uses restatement to emphasize that the people do not have to be slaves and that they have a choice. For example, this quotes states, “Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom or hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?” When the quote says, “...shall have bound us hand and foot?” this is emphasizing his point that the colonist are not slaves, and they should not view themselves as slaves. This demonstrates restatement because he is restating his idea of choice and slavery throughout the speech, but through different ways. Here is another example of restatement in his most famous quote: “give me liberty, or give me death.” Here he is restating the fact the people have a choice. He is also saying that since they have a choice it is their responsibility to fight. His reason for this is that God gave them power, and it is their responsibility to use it. The author’s overall purpose of this speech is to convince the colonists to go to war with the British. His use of restatement in this speech relates to his purpose because he is using restatement to convince the people that they have a choice to fight to not be treated as slaves. Throughout the speech, Patrick Henry not only uses ethos, pathos, and logos; but he also uses restatement.
As mentioned earlier, Patrick Henry uses the technique of parallelism in his speech. He uses parallelism in his speech to get the point across that they need to act now because everything they have already done has not worked. For example in this quote he says, “We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne.” He is using parallelism by repeating the words “we have.” By repeating these words, he is putting emphasis on all the things they have already tried to do. The second time parallelism is seen in the speech is in this quote “If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight!” Here he uses parallelism through the words “if we mean.” He is telling them that if they want privileges and do not want to struggle any longer they need to act now and stand up for themselves. The author’s purpose relates to his use of parallelism because it is telling them the time is now to take action, and this will convince the people to fight. In conclusion, not only through ethos, logos, and pathos; but through restatement and parallelism, Patrick Henry is able to make his argument stronger.
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This is a persusive essay about Patrick Henry's speech in Richmond.