Use of Rhetorical Devices: Harper Lee vs. Martin Luther King
To Kill a Mockingbird, a popularized historical-fiction novel by Harper Lee, and Martin Luther King’s notorious I Have a Dream speech, emphasize the hope for equality during the Civil Rights movement by using rhetorical devices such as parallel structure and repetition. Atticus’ closing argument in To Kill a Mockingbird encompasses the idea of prejudice and inequality under the law when Tom Robinson, a Negro, is accused of raping a white woman and will be convicted simply because he is black. Martin Luther King’s Detroit- I Have a Dream speech highlights the hope for a society without discrimination and inequality. The idea of inequality is highlighted with the use rhetorical devices …show more content…
Because these selections encompass hope for equality in the future, we can see how the hope for equality played a major role in the Civil Rights movement. King referenced To Kill a Mockingbird to show that it was the right book to come out at the right time, sparking the hope for equality in society. Harper Lee does an astounding job of creating a fictitious court that could very well represent the various attitudes of the time, where some would go as far as sending an innocent man to his death because of his skin color. Skin color played a major role in how people judged individuals in the 1930s, where stereotypes became more prevalent. Today, stereotypes are a commonplace among all aspects of a person’s physical features, thought and said by people of all races. So in reality has the idea of “judging a book by its cover” really gone away or has it just evolved and branched out to all races, and all races stereotyping one
To Kill a Mockingbird, a popularized historical-fiction novel by Harper Lee, and Martin Luther King’s notorious I Have a Dream speech, emphasize the hope for equality during the Civil Rights movement by using rhetorical devices such as parallel structure and repetition. Atticus’ closing argument in To Kill a Mockingbird encompasses the idea of prejudice and inequality under the law when Tom Robinson, a Negro, is accused of raping a white woman and will be convicted simply because he is black. Martin Luther King’s Detroit- I Have a Dream speech highlights the hope for a society without discrimination and inequality. The idea of inequality is highlighted with the use rhetorical devices …show more content…
Because these selections encompass hope for equality in the future, we can see how the hope for equality played a major role in the Civil Rights movement. King referenced To Kill a Mockingbird to show that it was the right book to come out at the right time, sparking the hope for equality in society. Harper Lee does an astounding job of creating a fictitious court that could very well represent the various attitudes of the time, where some would go as far as sending an innocent man to his death because of his skin color. Skin color played a major role in how people judged individuals in the 1930s, where stereotypes became more prevalent. Today, stereotypes are a commonplace among all aspects of a person’s physical features, thought and said by people of all races. So in reality has the idea of “judging a book by its cover” really gone away or has it just evolved and branched out to all races, and all races stereotyping one