Rhetorical analysis essay examples provide models that students can follow to write their essays. However, you should ensure that the model you follow is written well.
To make sure that the essay you’re using as an example, you should study the basic principles of writing proper rhetorical analysis. Check out this previous article to learn about writing a proper rhetorical analysis essay: How to Write a Rhetorical Analysis Essay.
If you are preparing for the AP Lang Rhetorical Analysis Essay, you should consult the sample essay from the College Board. It would be best to download and print them out as they are scanned versions of essays in the actual handwriting of students who took the exam. Check out the rubric and sample essays here: AP English Language and Composition 2021.
In this article, I will provide a brief rhetorical analysis essay using Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address to create the prompt.
Copy of the Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863) |
[1] Fourscore 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.
[2] 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.
[3] 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.
Rhetorical analysis of the Gettysburg Address |
In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln uses an appeal to pathos to connect the sacrifice of Union soldiers in the U.S. Civil War to a national rebirth of the democratic founding principles of the country, which were antithetical to the slavery that they fought against. He relies on a range of repetitive rhetorical devices, such as epistrophe and anaphora to do so. The speech was given on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in commemoration of Union soldiers who died fighting in the Battle of Gettysburg. This was fought from July 1 to July 3, 1863, and became a turning point in the Civil War. It was one of the bloodiest battles in the conflict and had an estimated 51,000 casualties, including more than 7,000 soldiers killed, 33,000 wounded, and several captured or missing.
Lincoln, despite his stature as a president, relies primarily on pathos and even explicitly rejects appeals to ethos or his reputation. In his rejection of ethos, he goes as far as saying “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” In his appeal to pathos, Lincoln portrays the soldiers as models to observe in upholding the democratic founding principle. The president uses repetitive rhetorical devices to emphasize the sacredness of the contribution made by the soldiers. For example, he uses a combination of anaphora (repetition at the beginning) and polysyndeton (a lack of conjunctions) in the following sentence: “But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow, this ground.” The repetition and lack of conjunctions serve to give power and energy to the sentence, especially after the opening sentences of the speech, which is somewhat subdued.
Lincoln juxtaposes the contribution of the soldiers with that of ordinary civilians to prepare the way for his wider point that everyone has a role to play in the greater struggle of promoting Democratic values, even if it doesn’t include combat. He does so in the following: “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” The rhetorical devices used here are symploce (i.e., repetition at the end with a small change in the middle) and chiasmus (repeating concepts in reverse order). The symploce and chiasmus are used here to compare and contrast the magnitude of the contribution of the soldiers who fought and died in battle with the relatively insignificant contribution made by civilians or non-combatants.
Lastly, Lincoln makes skillful use of one more repetitive rhetorical device — polyptoton (i.e., repeating a variation of the root of a word) in association with death to connect his speech to the wider theme of a collective national rebirth, which is introduced in the second paragraph of the speech. At the start of the speech, Lincoln uses a subtle metaphor describing the cemetery as a portion of a great battlefield. This sentiment is extended where the cause that the soldiers fight for is a national struggle in which all should participate. Lincoln says, “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.” The polyptoton with the word “die” can be seen as a transition from death to the theme of rebirth. Lincoln first mentions the noun or inactive form of the word, “dead.” Then, it changes to the active verb form “died,” before ending with a reference to “a new birth of freedom.”
In the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln pays homage to and immortalizes the fallen soldiers of Gettysburg by connecting their death and sacrifice as part of a greater struggle for the democratic founding principle of the nation. He relies on an appeal to pathos and connects the values that the soldiers fought and died for as democratic principles that all citizens have a duty to uphold. Repetitive rhetorical devices are used to reinforce these points. It culminates in the last sentence where he juxtaposes the death of the soldiers with the immortality of the national democratic principle that they fought for and he exhorts citizens to continue upholding to ensure that “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
Below is a PDF version of the rhetorical analysis essay example:
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Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, November 20). Rhetorical Analysis Essay Example. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/rhetorical-analysis-essay-example |
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