ENGLISH essay

Joaquin Melgarejo 10th

In what ways does Major use rhetoric in his speech and what impact does this have on the animals?

Major uses rhetoric in his speech in a number of ways. His aim is to make the animals conscious of their situation and to convince them to overthrow humans. He uses tricolon, rhetorical questions and contrast to persuade the animals of his utopian vision.

During the speech, Old Major uses tricolon because his purpose is to prove by giving examples, that the real enemy is mankind and to make the animals realize about the gravity of their situation, as well as convincing them with his ideology. “Our lives are miserable, laborious and short”p3. As we can observe in this quotation, Major is saying the truth and the reality of the animals` life in the farm which is hard and this shows the animals many conditions about the way they are living. The use of tricolon is to support the fact that they are not living an ideal animal life.

Old major uses rethorical questions in his speech because he wants the animals to reflect about their actual life conditions and to make them think about how is their true nature. “What is the nature of this life of ours?”p3 As we can see, Major is giving a particular thoughtful question because he wants the animals think about if their actual nature which they are living is correct, if it is the right one, to be human dependent animals. The use of this device is to persuade and mainly, to make the animals reflect.

Contrast is used by Major in his speech to describe and explain the differences between the farm animals and people in order to convince the animals. “Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle.” p6. This quotation tells us the main difference between those entities, human does not care about the animals, while animals are united and caring and also share the same concerns. The use of contrast is to define the differences between entities so animals can see and reflect about the real issue.

In conclusion, rhetoric, the art or ability of speaking and writing effectively with persuasion as a support to the arguments, is found in Majors` speech by giving accurate examples of their lives, by making the animals reflect deeply and by telling the differences between them and their enemies.