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Essential Question:
Essential Question:
What sets famous historical speeches apart?
What sets famous historical speeches apart?
To truly understand great rhetoric, one must watch, and listen to, great speakers. Today, we will do just that. In the pages below you will find links to two great speeches. Consider how these people use language to impress ideas upon the audience. Their use of words goes beyond simple definition, but draws on tone and gesture to augment meaning. Their arguments build on metaphor and allusion to create a powerful effect far greater than a singular sentence ever could.
Take care to study how this craft is honed. We will soon practice delivering speeches of our own.
The speeches I have selected for this module are both about 17 minutes long, and your analysis of these speeches will culminate in the composition of a complete essay. As such, this module may be completed over a number of days.
Key Terms
Key Terms
Rhetoric
Tone
Figurative Language
Two Great Speeches
Two Great Speeches
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Perhaps the greatest speaker of the 20th Century, Martin Luther King Jr. is best remember for his "I Have a Dream" speech. I have posted a recording of the speech in its entirety, and we could easily spend an entire trimester analyzing the many layer references and allusions he works into the speech.
To begin, consider the references to Abraham Lincoln that open the speech, and how this reminder of emancipation creates a serious contrast to the issues of racism that the speech addresses.
You may find the full text of the speech, including helpful annotations and hyperlinks, at AmericanRhetoric.com
Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai
This speech is far more recent, delivered in 2013 to the United Nations. Malala calls upon the world to support education and condemns terrorism in all it's forms. It is a powerful speech which draws, mostly, on simple and straight forward language, and is all the more impressive considering that Malala was 16 at the time.
The Full Text of the speech is available here, on Malala's Website.
Analyzing the Speeches
Analyzing the Speeches
Your task today will be to analyze these two exceptional speeches from history. We will examine speeches in two ways.
First, I would like you to analyze the speaker's use of rhetoric. Consider the following:
What rhetorical devices do you notice?
Does the speak utilize figurative language?
What allusions and references do you notice?
Be sure to watch the videos, but the full text of the speeches will be most helpful for drawing quotes as evidence in your own writing.
Second, analyze the wider scope of the speeches:
What makes these speeches so effective?
What makes these speeches stand out in history?
This should be a complete analysis, in which you state a clear thesis and develop a complete essay with convincing support. The essay should be no fewer than five paragraphs. Please use MLA when formatting your essay and your citations.
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