The Power of Words: Critical Analysis

The Power of Words

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel. It is to bring another out of his bad sense into your good sense.” The most logical way to persuade a crowd is through speech. A speech can move thousands to fight in a war or completely accept or reject any idea. Speakers influence people by using strategies like scheme, trope, and appeals. Speakers like Patrick Henry and Martin Luther King Jr. moved thousands to believe in their ideas by using strategies to catch their audience’s attention.

        In Patrick Henry’s “Speech to Virginia Convention,” Henry does an effective job at using schemes to get his crowd rallied up. His goal is to get the Colonies to continue to rebel against the British, and he does so by saying, “Forbid it, Almighty God!” When Henry says this he intentionally uses apostrophes to show his audience the seriousness of the situation. In a speech this is vital because in this moment the speaker changes his tone of voice. The whole speech is heighten and the energy is intense. He forcefully rejects the British, and he calls out to God to forbid the injustice from continuing. He calls out to God to stop the British from taking away the colonies’ freedom.  By using apostrophes like the one mentioned, Henry emphasizes how serious he is when saying that the British government is only deceiving the colonies with false sense of securities. He brings into play a strong symbolic figure like God to to influence his audience to fight with him against the British. The idea that fight alongside God against the British is much more appealing than defying God and compromising with the British.

        Similarly, Martin Luther King Jr. also uses schemes to plant ideas in his audience’s head. He uses an anaphora to lead his audience into the mentality that African Americans have suffered enough. When he says, “Now is the time to make real promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from...