Com 220 Week 1 Day 7 Assignment

There are several examples of fallacies, bias, and rhetorical fallacies throughout the “Charles Foster Kane Campaigns for Governor” speech. The speaker’s introductory statement displays bias statements against the Governor. He states that this candidate is the only person that could rid the people of the evil domination of the opponent; he does not have anything to support this statement or prove it as fact. This clearly shows that the speaker is bias. Kane is also bias because he refers to the Governor as dishonest and refers to him as “a villain”

One fallacy that was observed in the speech is the fallacy slippery slope. The candidate suggests that if the Governor is re-elected bad things will continue to happen. The next fallacy is Kane’s motivation to put fear in the listeners. His tone, emotion, and negative statements about the Governor’s intentions is a scare tactic. The speech also contains the ad hominem fallacy. He frequently attacks the Governor, rather than attacking the argument. The last fallacy observed is apple polishing. Kane appealed to a group’s vanity to persuade them to vote for him. He did this by saying that “decent, ordinary citizens know that I'll do everything in my power to protect the underprivileged, the underpaid, and the underfed!”

The speech has multiple rhetorical devices. One example of a rhetorical device use is the device paradox, when a statement is contradictory but at the same time evokes some higher meaning. Kane used this device when he stated that he is too busy to make specific promises, but yet he states that he wants to protect the underprivileged. He is too busy to make a promise, but is making a promise in the same statement, this is contradictory; however, the promise is very significant. Another rhetorical device used in the speech is the device of metaphor, which is the technique of comparing two things in the same sentence (without using the word like or as). It was used in the passage about...