Rhetorical Devices In A Quilt Of A War

We, as an individual have an important role in society. Each individual is like a piece of a puzzle, no piece is bigger or smaller. However each piece is necessary to complete the puzzle; or society. In the works, “A Quilt of a Country”, “Once Upon A time”, and “The Gettysburg Address”, Anna Quindlen, Nadine Gordimer, and Abraham Lincoln respectively convey the individual’s role in society through the use of rhetoric techniques. The authors use different types of rhetoric techniques, to convey their ideas, whether it’s through an analogy, or an ironic ending. However, the authors come to an agreement on what the individual’s role is. Quindlen, Gordimer and Lincoln believe that a society is stronger when the individuals unify and blend themselves …show more content…
“But to please her—for he loved her very much and buses were being burned, cars stoned, and school children shot by the police in those quarters out of sight and hearing of the suburb—he had electronically controlled gates fitted,”(13). This detail shows us how by not trusting our society and it’s people, we are creating a discordant atmosphere. This is because the story is set in South Africa, which was practicing apartheid at the time. The government and people of South Africa segregated the people based on their race. In comparison to Quindlen, Gordimer also believes a society should be pluralistic and diverse. When a society doesn’t trust then its not at its best, it becomes discordant and weak. This details shows how mistrust leads to violence and riots. “When the man and wife and little boy took the pet dog for it’s walk, they no longer paused to admire this show of roses or that perfect lawn, they were hidden behind an array of different varieties of security fences, walls and devices,”(15). This detail shows how, individuals that shield themselves from society end up missing out in the good. Similarly to Quindlen, Gordimer uses a rhetoric technique, irony, to convey her ideas. It’s ironic that the little boy’s parents installed a bunch of safety equipment such as barbed wire, to protect themselves from the violence. Yet the boy still gets …show more content…
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,”(27). This shows that as an individual we must acknowledge that our society is a whole, it is one. That everyone in the society is equal and deserves the same amount of freedom. “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure,”(28). This shows us that if an individual doesn’t unite themselves with their society then it will suffer. The detail is talking about how the civil war is tearing the nation apart because it is no longer united. So individuals must unite and keep their society from falling apart. Just like Quindlen and Gordimer, Lincoln uses rhetorical technique, parallelism, to convey his ideas.“That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,”(28). This is one example of parallelism in Lincoln’s speech. The word “people” is repeated to evoke our emotions and encourage us to unite. In the speech, Lincoln talks about how the nation should come together and finish the task that the soldiers died for. Lincoln hopes we create a strong equal democracy where we all have a say. So we don’t make the