The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest
(For Brutus is an honorable man;
So are they all; all honorable men),
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
4. Explain (a) who the sophists were in ancient
Greece and (b) how the characteristics of Athenian law courts contributed to the
popularity of the sophists.
5. Toward the end of Plato’s Phaedrus, the character of Socrates
concedes that a true art of rhetoric (an ideal rhetoric) may be possible. Briefly,
identify two of the conditions that Socrates said must exist for rhetoric to be a
true art.
6. (short essay question)
Offer
a concise yet thorough rhetorical analysis of the following passage. In addition to
discussing how the author establishes particular ethical, pathetic, and logical appeals,
be sure to include in your analysis discussion of the author=s
rhetorical purpose(s) as well as his use of pronouns, tricolons, metaphors, oxymoron,
list structures, epithets, alliteration, ethopoeia, connotations, parenthesis, tetracolon
climax, anaphora, apposition, homoioiteleuton, and epiphora.
Feel free, of course, to discuss other devices as wellBand
to relate your observations to parts of the essay not excerpted here.
It was about forty yards to the gallows. I watched the bare brown back of the
prisoner marching in front of me. He walked clumsily with his bound arms, but quite
steadily, with that bobbing gait of the Indian who never straightens his knees. At each
step his muscles slid neatly into place, the lock of hair on his scalp danced up and down,
his feet printed themselves on the wet gravel. And once, in spite of the men who gripped
him by each shoulder, he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path.
It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive. All the organs of his body were working--bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming--all toiling away in solemn foolery.
7. In Book One of his Rhetoric,
Aristotle counters several of Plato's assertions in the Gorgias by insisting that
rhetoric is artistic (rather than "unscientific"), the counterpart of dialectic
(rather than cookery), and a morally neutral tool (rather than a tool of wrongdoers). In
addition, whereas Plato had argued that rhetoric is of no use to the virtuous man,
Aristotle identifies four important uses of rhetoric. Briefly,
identify three of these uses.
8. Aristotle invented what has become a well-known division of speeches into three
categories reflecting both the different settings in which speeches occur and the three
corresponding rhetorical purposes for which they are made. Identify these three divisions
(or branches) of oratory along with the broad purpose of each.
9. Define (and distinguish between) "invented ethos" and "situated
ethos," and discuss how both types of ethos came into play (and perhaps competed with
each other) in the speech Gary Hart delivered in 1987 announcing his withdrawal from the
race for the Democratic nomination for president.
10. By the time Cicero came to write his treatises on rhetoric, the study of
rhetoric was divided (mainly for pedagogical convenience) into five parts. Using either the Latin terms or their more
common English equivalents, identify these five parts or "canons" or
"stages of composition," and briefly explain what each of these parts was
concerned with according to classical rhetoricians.
11. Briefly summarize how, according to Aristotle in his Rhetoric, enthymemes,
examples, and maxims EACH contribute in their own way to the art of
persuasion.
12. Define the rhetorical concept of kairos, and briefly explain
how, in Act III of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony employs the concept both in his first
appearance before the crowd (bearing the corpse of Julius Caesar) and in his calculated
hesitation to read aloud Caesars will.
13. In the following stanza from Dylan Thomas's villanelle
"Do not go gentle into that good night," clearly identify (i.e., indicate
exactly which words illustrate which device; no need to define or, for this question,
discuss the effects of) his particular use of these devices: paranomasia, oxymoron,
assonance, simile, epizeuxis, and polyptoton.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
14. Define
the terms tenor and vehicle, and point out clearly how and where
each is embodied in William Stafford’s poem "Recoil":
The bow bent remembers home long,
the years of its tree, the whine
of wind all night conditioning
it, and its answer--Twang!
"To the people here who would fret me down
their way and make me bend:
By remembering hard I could startle for home
and be myself again."
15. As Aristotle points out, logos, pathos, and ethos
usually work together to win an argument. Whether or not you think he won his
argument, explain specifically how Richard Nixon employed all three kinds of
proof in his 1952 "Checkers speech."
16. In his "Whiskey Speech," Noah S. "Soggy" Sweat, Jr.
delivered an enduring parody of political double talk. Explain how he employed distinctio
in a comic fashion in this speech.
17. Cicero’s works played a significant part in mediating the controversy
between the "Asiatics" and the "Atticists." What contrasting stylistic
habits and conventions were espoused by the Asiatics and the Atticists in
Cicero’s day, and in what ways did Cicero’s concept of decorum suggest a
compromise (of sorts) between the two groups?
18. In his poem "And a Child Went Forth," Walt Whitman employs polysyndeton
and asyndeton to create different effects. Define each of these terms, and
explain the different effects created by Whitman.
19. The rhetorical concept of identification, introduced by 20th-century
rhetorician Kenneth Burke, is related to the classical notion of ethopoeia. Briefly yet specifically, explain how essayist E.
B. White employs the strategy of identification in "The Ring of Time."
20. In Chapter Three of Orality and Literacy (1982),
Walter J. Ong lists several of the distinctive ways in which people in a "primary
oral culture" (such as Homer's Greece) think and express themselves through
narrative. Clearly identify any three of
these distinctive characteristics.
21. Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" is a type of speech known as a jeremiad.
Briefly, explain the biblical origin of this term and then list the three basic parts that
make up the rhetorical structure of a jeremiad.
22. In a clear and concise paragraph (or list), (a) clearly
define the two schemes and/or tropes in bold at the head of the passage; (b)
clearly identify the particular words (or lines) in the passage that illustrate
each device or strategy; and (c) briefly explain
the specific effect(s) created (or apparently intended) by the speaker's use of these
schemes and tropes within the rhetorical context.
4. ASYNDETON and CROTS
The mother at home, quietly placing the dishes on the supper-table;
The mother with mild words--lean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by;
The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, anger’d, unjust;
The blow, the quick loud word, the tight bargain, the crafty lure,
The family usages, the language, the company, the furniture–the yearning and swelling heart,
Affection that will not be gainsay’d–the sense of what is real–the thought if, after all, it should prove unreal,
The doubts of day-time and the doubts of night-time–the curious whether and how,
Whether that which appears so is so, or is it all flashes and specks?
(Walt Whitman, "A Child Went Forth")
23. Define dialectic, and briefly describe Socrates=
commanding use of this communicative strategy in Plato=s
Gorgias.
24. In different ways, both Marc Antony and Gary Hart (in the speeches viewed
in class) practice what Heinrichs calls "Quintilian's useful doubt" (or dubitatio).
Specifically, explain how.
25. Identify and briefly discuss the conventional extended metaphor
employed (for different purposes) by both Emily Dickinson in "Because I could
not stop for death" and Christina Rossetti in "Up Hill."
26. Briefly yet specifically, discuss Jessie Fauset's use of metaphors and
paradox in her poem "Enigma."
27. Explain how the following e. e. cummings’
poem "l(a" contains both a visual and a textual metaphor:
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
28. Like earlier rhetoricians, the author of the Institutio Oratoria
(translated as The Institutes of Oratory) regarded the broadly educated individual
as the fittest candidate for a course in rhetoric. Identify the author of the Institutio
Oratoria, and explain what additional qualification he thought the orator should
possess--a
qualification that earlier rhetoricians had hinted at but did not examine at length.
29. In the attached magazine ad for Vaseline Total Moisture Dry Skin
Lotion, briefly explain how euphemisms and enthymemes serve to convey the advertiser's
persuasive message.
30. In a clear and
concise paragraph (or list), (a) clearly define the two schemes and/or tropes in
bold at the head of the passage; (b) clearly identify the particular words (or
lines) in the passage that illustrate each device or strategy; and (c) briefly explain the specific
effect(s) created (or apparently intended) by the speaker's use of these schemes and
tropes within the rhetorical context.
2. ANTITHESIS and CLIMAX (or AUXESIS)
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation,
conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that
war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those
who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that
we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow
-- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it,
far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather,
to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so
nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before
us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead
shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth.
(Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address)
English 5730 is
taught by Dr. Richard Nordquist.
Armstrong Atlantic State University
Savannah, Georgia 31419
912-921-5991
e-mail: engl5730@lycos.com
05 Mar 2008