Rhetorical Figures in Literary Works

1. By: Fiebernitz Pietila England Mioduszewski Calkins Plastow Pelland Young Rhetorical Terms #6

2. Anacoluthon • Construction that involves the change from one grammatical sequence to another within a single sentence. Finishing a sentence with a different grammatical structure form that with which it began. • Seeing the changing leaves makes me so—I don’t want to talk about it. • I will have such revenges on you both,That all the world shall--I will do such things,What they are, yet I know not."William Shakespeare, King Lear • “'I'm afraid - er - that's it," he said rather apologetically.”-The Future of the Novel by Peter James • “Pretending that they don’t so they don’t need to use it to help people—that is my idea of evil.” Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace.

3. Apostrophe • Is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a talker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea. In dramatic works and poetry, it is often introduced by the word “O” (not to be confused with the exclamation “oh”). It is related to personification, although in apostrophe, objects or abstractions are implied to have certain human qualities (such as understanding) by the very fact that the speaker is addressing them as he would a person in his presence. • O basketball, you are so good to me. • “Hello darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again..” (Paul Simon, “The Sounds of Silence”) • “God’s justice” often seems “far to seek” in the way that a plague spares some and kills others… - Amazing Grace • The summer's heat of your embrace . . . melts my frozen earth. - Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child, Noel Riley Fitch

4. Archaism • The use of archaic diction or style • A word that is either no longer used in the language or whose meaning has significantly changed. • The archaisms “methinks” and “saith” • “Shall we go the ball?” “Methinks we shall.” • Despite the fact that the just are dying with the unjust, wrote Cyprian, the bishop of 251 A.D., “it is not for you to think that the destruction is a common one for both the evil and the good…” – Amazing Grace • Thou that listenest to the sighs of orphans and drinkest the tears of children, at length I was dismissed from thee; the time was come at last that I no more should pace in anguish thy never-ending terraces, no more should dream and wake in captivity to the pangs of hunger. – Thomas De Quincey, The Pleasures of Opium

5. Assertion • A general figure of emphasis that describes when one states something as though it had been in dispute or in answer to a question, though it has not been. • A declaration that is made emphatically • In his novel, Jonathon Kozol asserts that inner city poverty is an often overlooked problem in our society. • In his 1998 Address to the Irish Parliament, Tony Blair asserts that the U.K. and Ireland are more similar than different, and both countries could be more prosperous if violence were to stop. • The teacher asserts that organized binders are a sign of an intelligent student. • When confronted with opposition on his legislation, the senator asserted his bill suited the needs of the nation.

6. Ascription • The act of ascribing or being ascribed. A statement to assign (something) to a supposed cause; impute; attribute. • Assigning some quality or character to a person or thing. • “I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports.” – Theodore Roosevelt’s A Proper Place for Sports • “These rats are fearless. Light don’t scare them. Noise don’t scare them. You can see them in the park at noon.” – Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace • The candle’s wax was brown and melty. • Katie’s hair was greasy.

7. Catachresis • The use of a word in a context that differs from its proper application. • “I will speak daggers to her.” – William Shakespeare’s Hamlet • The summit of their nose can be seen from a mile away. • “But his accusation stuck in my craw. And in the process of trying to cough it up so I could look at it, it occurred to me that a humanist, perhaps, was somebody who was crazy about human beings, who, like Will Rogers, had never met one he didn't like.” – Kurt Vonnegut’s Why My Dog is not a Humanist • “Snow blankets New York during the second half of January.”- Jonathan Kozol Amazing Grace

8. Credibility • The quality, capability, or power to inspire belief. • In this instance, the lawyer’s job is to make the jury doubt the witness’s credibility. • Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Lasto Hero.   "Forty public schools, two hospitals, and more than two hundred parks and ball fields bear his name." • Amazing Grace.   "In Brook Avenue in 1991, the median household income according to the New York Times, was 7,600 dollars... At the elementary school... only seven of the eight hundred children do not qualify for free school lunches. • In “The true story of American Soccer,” David Eggers is seen as credible because he is knowledgeable about world affairs, the World Cup, and the popularity of soccer among American youths. • When asked to testify in court, though both saw the crime, the Police Officer is seen as more credible than the teenage drug dealer.

9. Cultural Assumption • When we assume that a person has particular values and attitudes based on their cultural background. • Understanding cultural assumptions and how they work will help to analyze visual texts. Composers of texts often use cultural assumptions to reach their audience.

10. Cultural Assumption Examples • You will make many cultural assumptions in your everyday life. Think very carefully about the cultural assumptions that you make about: • A. Gender - what are the characteristics of males and females? Are girls nice like sugar and spice and boys mean and never clean? • B. Age - what are the characteristics of young people (perhaps you believe them to be fun-loving) and older people (perhaps they are boring). • The assumption that Parisians are dirty. • Passengers departing La guardia for Boston on the Delta shuttle get a good view of the island if they’re sitting on the left side of the plane, though few may know that what they see beneath them is the largest penal institutions in the world, serving some of the most damaged human products of the largest ghetto population in America. – Amazing Grace • Politics ain't hard. You just hang around and go to funerals. – Why My Dog I Not a Humanist, Kurt Vonnegut

11. Enthymeme • Is an informally-stated syllogism which omits either one of the premises or the conclusion. The omitted part must be clearly understood by the reader. The usual form of this logical shorthand omits the major premise. • All writers have forgotten the problems of the human heart, therefore in order to write well, writers must relearn the problems of the human heart. (Missing Premise- Good writers know the problems of the human heart) – William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Speech • Poor people do not have money, therefore cannot own homes.(Missing Premise- People without money cannot buy homes) – Jonathon Kozol’s Amazing Grace • Lauren is class president, therefore she is a leader. (Missing Premise- The class president is a leader) • Wise words stand the test of time, therefore Lord Churchill's words will stand the test of time. (Missing Premise- Lord  Churchill's words were wise) -from the motion picture Young Winston

12. Epiplexis • A rhetorical term for asking questions to rebuke or reproach rather than to elicit answers. • Why do we live so greedily and others go without meals every night? How were these barriers determined? • “Why is it that hyphenation is imposed only on nonwhite Americans? Rejecting hyphenation is my refusal to categorize the cultural landscape into a center and its peripheries; it is to demand that the American nation deliver the promises of its dream and its Constitution to all its citizens equally.”- American Dreamer by Bharati Mukerjee • “If the nurses and doctors feel that way, why wouldn’t other people too?” – Jonathan Kozol Amazing Grace

13. Epistrophe • The repetition of the same word or words comes at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences • The Stunt Pilot.   "They flew upside down, and straightened out; They did barrel rolls, and straightened out." • Amazing Grace, pg. 104 “I don’t accept.” “Does your mother accept?” “No, she does not accept.” • "It's people. Soylent Green is made out of people. They're making our food out of people!"(Charlton Heston as Detective Thorn in Soylent Green, 1973) • Run, don’t think just run, Don’t matter where just run.

14. Irony • Expression of something which is contrary to the intended meaning; the words say one thing but mean another. • Notes of a Native Son.   "Every man in the chapel hoped that all of his lapses... and strayings from the truth would be invested with coherence and looked upon with charity.  This was perhaps the last thing human beings could give each other and it was what they demanded, after all, of the Lord." • In Amazing Grace, it is ironic that Manhattan, one of the richest districts in the United States, and the Bronx, one of the poorest, are so close to each other  • In Tony Blair’s 1998 Address to the Irish Parliament, Blair notes that it is ironic how Ireland has structured itself after England, though Ireland despises England. • In 1981, while standing next to his car, President Ronald Regan was hit in the chest by a bullet fired by John Hinkley Jr. In fact, Hinkley's bullet completely missed President Reagan, but then ricocheted off the car's bulletproof window, and struck President Reagan in the chest. (Ironic because bulletproof glass was supposed to protect him, but actually was what injured him.)

15. Metalepsis • Reference to something by means of another thing that is remotely related to it, either through farfetched causal relationship, or through an implied intermediate substitution of terms. Often used for comic effect through its preposterous exaggeration. • Vague description of something. • Pallid death- The effect of death is to make the body pale. Ascribing this effect to death itself as an adjective here is an example of metalepsis. • He is such a lead foot.- This means, "he drives fast" but only through an implied causal chain: Lead is heavy, a heavy foot would press the accelerator, and this would cause the car to speed. • “Christmas at last in New York City, but there is no snow.” Amazing Grace. • In Laurence Sterne's novel, Tristram Shandy, Tristram blames his troubled life and character (the effect) on his parents' ill-timed conception of him (the remote cause)—a rather comical and extended example of metalepsis.

16. Paragoge • The addition of a sound/s, letter or syllable to the end of a word either grammatically correct or not. • “I was very gratified to see that amongst those items was the floppy disc version of my novel Host, published in 1995 by Penguin as the world’s first electronic novel....” Peter James speech the Future of the Novel • When “slack” becomes “slacken” • “I was very gratified to see that amongst those items was the floppy disc version of my novel Host, published in 1995 by Penguin as the world's first electronic novel...” Perer James Speech the Future of the Novel • “She said, 'Mommy' I said, that's your mother.” -Amazing Grace

17. Ploce • The repetition of a single word for rhetorical emphasis or to indicate an extension of meaning. • Langston Hughes, English B Poem.   "Go home and write a page tonight and let that page come out of you--- I take the elevator up to my room, sit down, and write this page... hear you, hear me--- we too--- you, me, talk on this page.  So will my page be colored that I write?  This is my page for English B." •     Amazing Grace.   "When you leave you are in the poorest... The people who live here... make up one of the larges racially segregated concentrations of poor people in our nation.  Brook Avenue... whose 48,000 people are the poorest in the South Bronx... The mothers and fathers who come here for prayer, are said to be the poorest people in New York.  More than 95 percent are poor.  The poorest of the poor, poor by any standard I can think of.“ • "I am stuck on Band-Aid, and Band-Aid's stuck on me."(advertising slogan) • Their Militia and minute Men have been some time employed in training them selves, and they have Nine Battallions of regulars as they call them, maintained among them, under good Officers, at the Continental Expence.”

18. Polemic • A person who writes in support of one opinion, doctrine, or system, in opposition to another; a conversationalist; a disputant. • An argument or controversial discussion. • Jonathan Kozol writes in support of poverty being mistreated in America. – Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace • Theodore Roosevelt writes that Football is a very hard, manly sport. – Theodore Roosevelt’s A Proper Place for Sports • God writes in support of forgiveness, and in opposition of the devil. – The Bible • A republican writing in support of the election of a conservative.

19. Premise • Preposition, condition or statement from which conclusion is drawn. • “On the local, three are many heavily dressed men and women with babies, but few with shopping bags and none with those bright-colored Christmas bags from Bloomingdale’s or Macy’s.” Amazing Grace. • The kid broke his leg, so he can’t play the game tomorrow. • None of us knows how the quiver of a shrub in California affects the mental state of a coal miner in North Bohemia or how his mental state affects the quivering of the shrub. I believe that we have little chance of averting an environmental catastrophe unless we recognize that we are not the masters of Being, but only a part of Being...” -A Quiver of a Shrub in California • If twins have different IQ scores, and there genes are the exact same but there environments are not then IQ scores are influenced by the environment.

20. Precedent • An example or instance used to justify later similar occurrences. • One time, I didn’t have enough money to pay for a movie ticket. Now, I always bring twenty dollars to the movie theatre. • “Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But we've never lost an astronaut in flight. We've never had a tragedy like this.” –Ronald Reagan on the Shuttle Challenger disaster. Afterward, steps were taken to correct the fatal mistake, which is why it was a precedent. • ``A precedent injury.'' --Bacon. (Meaning that the injury was the first and “set the stage” for every other injury.) • In Amazing Grace, the drug lord Calderon set a precedent as the first organized drug lord of the Bronx.

21. Scesis Onomaton • Figure of repetition in which a set of two or more different words having the same (or very nearly the same) meaning occurs within the same sentence; a successive series of words or phrases whose meanings are generally equivalent.

22. Scesis Onomaton Examples • “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters.” -Isaiah 1:4, KJV • You are ignorant, foolish, unlearned of the world. • “But nothing important, or meaningful, or beautiful, or interesting or great ever came out of imitations.” -Anna Quindlen's Commencement Speech Mount Holyoke College • “Although there are flashes of impatience and sarcasm as she speaks, her comments on these matters for the most part are subdued, not openly indignant and there is a quietness about her words...” -Amazing Grace

23. Syllepsis • A kind of ellipsis in which one word (usually a verb) is understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs. • “We must hang together or assuredly we will hang separately.” –Benjamin Franklin • “You held your breath and the door for me.” –Alanis Morrissette, “Head Over Feet” • I lost my car keys and my mind. • “We came here in chains and now we buy our own chains and put them on ourselves.” -Amazing Grace

24. Synopsis • A brief or condensed statement giving a general view of some subject; a brief summary of the plot of a novel, motion picture, play, etc. • Jonathon Kozol’s novel shows us the side of poverty that we do not see. He travels in the South Bronx and documents conversations between himself and the poor living in the area. – Jonathan Kozol’s Amazing Grace • Twilight portrays a girl who falls in love with a vampire who wants to drink her blood, but a werewolf wants her too. – from the motion picture Twilight. • Waiting is tedious and anxiety filled, whether waiting for hospital results or election outcomes. – S.L. Wisenberg’s The Way of All Waiting • Peter Parker uses his superhuman powers to battle his archenemy, the Green Goblin. – from the motion picture Spider-man

25. Syntax • Refers to the grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence. Normal word order in English sentences is firmly fixed in • Subject • Verb • Object • “The voices of the world, said that I was nuts.” -Anna Quindlen's Commencement Speech (voices of the world=subject, said=verb, I=object) • The teacher told me my son has been misbehaving in class. (teacher=subject, told=verb, me=object). • “Mrs. Washington makes arrangements with me on the phone to meet at her daughter’s house for dinner (Mrs. Washington=subject, makes arrangements=verb, me=object) Amazing Grace. • “I cannot say that I think you are very generous to the ladies;” (I=subject, say=verb, you=object) Abigail Adams to John Adams May 7, 1776.