The War Prayer Rhetorical Analysis

Twain uses satire through Sherburn's speech to criticize human nature and the society as a whole. Sherburn describes the mobs and the town people as cowards since they wouldn't be able to lynch him and go against him if they were not in a group. Through this satire from Sherburn's speech, the readers can understand Twain's view on human nature. Twain pokes fun of the fact that in society, people often times follow with whatever the crowd believes in rather than what an individual believes

During both of the World Wars, the United States was short on money and supplies for the soldiers overseas, so they made posters to gain support from the people still at home. The posters showcased government bonds that Americans could buy that were essentially loans to the United States government. In order to get people to spend the small amounts of money they had, the posters used emotions and tone to persuade the American citizens to buy the bonds. The term used for the emotional looking pictures to showcase the author’s message is pathos. Many of the posters used during the wars used pathos to get their message across.

Twain describes the time of war as “a glad and gracious time,” and the victorious soldiers as “bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory!” His positive description of imperialism represents the common belief that war is a glorious event and a source of pride for the victors. Twain also describes those against the war, but in a negative light: “the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning...” Twain’s description of anti-imperialists and the treatment they received from others shows how unpopular and seemingly insane their ideas were. Though Twain himself was an anti-imperialist, he describes them in a negative way to gain readers. Most Americans in the early 1900’s were imperialists, and through a positive and prideful description of imperialism at the beginning of his essay, Twain is able to draw in many readers he would have offended if he wrote only of the horrors of imperialism. Twain’s word choice drew in more readers, causing many to now question imperialism. Twain’s word choice describing both pro- and anti-imperialists widens his audience, and his thoughts on the effects of imperialism are seen by more readers. His word choice effectively spreads his message.

In 1944, the United States war effort in Europe was just starting to pick up. Even though the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred just three years prior, the growing power of the Third Reich could not be ignored. During this time, France was already occupied by Nazi Germany and Hitler's war machine was on the path of conquering all of Eurasia. In an attempt to combat this immense threat, the U.S. formulated a plan to engage the German forces through an invasion of Normandy. This bloody offensive would be remembered in infamy as D-Day. Shortly before this violent clash of U.S. and German forces, the inexperienced men of the United States Third Army was given an encouraging and inspiring speech by the four star general George S. Patton.

In the incredible book, All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, the reader follows Paul Baumer, a young man who enlisted in the war. The reader goes on a journey and watches Paul and his comrades face the sheer brutality of war. In this novel, the author tries to convey the fact that war should not be glorified. Through bombardment, gunfire, and the gruesome images painted by the author, one can really understand what it would have been like to serve on the front lines in the Great War. The sheer brutality of the war can be portrayed through literary devices such as personification, similes, and metaphors.

The advertisement by WWF uses rhetorical strategies such as an establishment of ethos, and an appeal to logos and pathos. WWF establishes ethos by being a world wildlife program who “is at work in more than 40 countries...and collaborating with governments and coastal communities,” which demonstrates their credibility. They appeal to logos by offering statistics such as that “ten million people in sub-Saharan Africa make a living fishing,” and that the “number of fish in their waters has declined by 50 percent.” By offering these concrete numbers and statistics, WWF establishes a logical advertisement. Pathos is appealed by this advertisement by including phrases such as “Protecting the Future of Nature”, “protect marine populations,” and “ensure

“Alright pal, you got me,” beamed Finny. Phineas, the only perfect person in the world (hyperbole), just admitted that I had beaten him at something. Once this realization hit me, a moment of pure joy sunk in, until it quickly passed and was followed by an overwhelming sense of disappointment. It wasn’t enough. Without further thought, I quickly flipped Finny, who was caught off guard by his euphoric state, over and pinned him to the ground (parallel structure). To my surprise, after the initial shock left his expression, he began to laugh. Finny had finally been beaten at something athletic, and all he could do was laugh.

An example of the irony in the story, is the government of San Lorenzo, a small island nation somewhere in the Caribbean. The people in San Lorenzo were utterly hopeless. They have always been this way. San Lorenzo has been throughout history, one of the most unsuccessful and useless place on earth. The people are dirt poor and do not have any motivation at all. The way that they are kept alive at all is by trickery by the government and the holy man Bokonon. The dictator of San Lorenzo and Bokonon were both friends who decided to govern San Lorenzo by themselves. Since the people were hopeless and without direction, Bokonon invented his religion and the the dictator outlawed it and made practicing any religion other than Christianity punishable by death. All the people on the island had become devout Bokononists, and the struggle between the government and the religion kept them entertained, and therefore alive. The hopeless,

The passion and pure talent that Logic brings to the table mixed with his love for Movies and Video Games allows him to create a story driven album that includes lines of controversial subjects summing up Logic's views on the worlds problems. The album revolves around a man (Adam) who has been chosen by God to live through every human life to ever exist before he can proceed to after life, just like Logic's other studio albums this one tells a story woven into the songs. Logic raps from many different perspectives to convey the story presented in the first song "Hallelujah" where the main character is hit by a car sending Adam to have a conversation with God played by Neil Degrasse Tyson. This leads into God telling Adam he is in a waiting

Passion is a necessary trait all excellent speakers use to persuade their audiences. A passionate speaker uses pathos to sway his or her audience to the speaker’s side by playing with the audience’s emotions. Before pathos is used to move the audience emotionally, it is smart for the speaker to use ethos to build good credibility. With credibility, the speaker has the ability to make the audience trust him or her. That trust is beneficial to help the audience believe what the speaker is saying. Logos is another trait that a strong speaker must make use of to show intellect. It is the appeal to logic. Logic is needed to show the audience that the speaker knows his or her facts and can effectively back them up. Ethos, pathos, and logos are three vital aspects of a good speech. Elizabeth I uses all three appeals subtly throughout her speech, using pathos the most. The queen also uses rhetorical devices to emphasize her points. Through the use of amplification, asyndeton, and climax, Elizabeth I reassures and inspires her troops with her compelling speech.

People watch other individuals experience irony all the time. When something is ironic it means that the thing that was to happen, did not happen the way it was thought to happen. Sometimes irony happens to those who least expect it or irony happens to everyone. There have been songs, television ads, and stories written about irony or that have included ironic events or details. One piece of literature that contains a lot of irony is Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat”. Crane uses irony in many different ways in the story to tell of four individuals who survive their ship being wrecked and everyone else aboard has drown.

Kurt Vonnegut is able to put a man’s face on war in his short story, “All the King’s Horse ”, and he exemplifies that in a time of war, the most forgotten effect on nations is the amount of innocent lives lost in meaningless battle due to unjust rulers fighting each other against a nation’s will. As Americans, we are oblivious to the fact that we have people fighting every day for our country. In addition, we ignore the fact that we do a lot of collateral damage and hurt innocent people unintentionally in order to get what we want. Vonnegut shows the reader in Pi Ying’s own sadistic way of demonstrating how he feels about war brings attention to the point that war, while unruly and cruel, is nothing

“To the Person Sitting in Darkness” is another one of Twain’s works that uses irony to present an argument, therefore allowing an easier way to discuss the argument. However, this work is not presented in a light-hearted fashion. Rather, it uses satire to show extremes in order to force people to consider the problems with imperialism. This essay discusses several world events in which

“The War Prayer” by Samuel L. Clemens, is his attempt to force the public to realize the implicit outcome of praying for victory in war, which inevitably is death. His use of irony and hyperbole is evident in this clever narrative. The passage satirically describes how a very religious town comes together during a time of war to pray for the downfall of the enemy and the triumph of their men. An old man then comes into the church and prays the same exact prayer that the townspeople are praying without concealing the truth. Clemens uses the old man to identify his purpose of the narrative, ignorance to war.

Mark Twain is satirizing the advice young people are given by authoritative figures on different issues in life. The words of wisdom used to guide youth usually promote the same ideals and are repeated so often that in some sense they lose their strength. That does not mean though that the issues they touch upon are not important. Twain uses humor to actually make young people go beyond the banality and conformity and ask questions of importance.