How to read RHETORIC

What is RHETORIC

Cicero, ancient Roman orator

Art of using language effectively, persuasively, and ethically

Rhetoric is literally figures of speech

Figurative use of language

(As opposed to literal meaning)

Eye of the stormButterflies in my stomachOn the Clock

Feel like a million bucks

Click on the images

Tree huggers

What a nut

Hit the sack

Patterns of language:

VocabularyImages

Figures of speechAllusions

Storytelling methodsMeans of persuasion

Style

Where is RHETORIC

EVERYWHERE

Why RHETORIC

Effective

Toni Morrison, winner of Nobel Prize in Literature 1993

StrategicWinston Churchill, British Prime Minister 1940-45 &

1951-55

To develop a built-in lie detector

Lie True

Dubious LogicalStrawman

Fact-basedBias

Reliab

le

source

sRed herring

FairGeneralization

Avoid fallacies

There’s an ethical way to communicate…

Beg the questionEither/or

False analogy

Ad hominem Non sequiturRed herringStrawman

Sweeping generalization

Why study the RHETORIC of the

Puritans

Puritans Say the Darndest Things

vast and howling wilderness

perjured chosen

Devilauthority

article

promise

providence

covenant Israellight

Heathenmembers of the same

bodyelect

scourge

special commision

God’s peoplea people

in Christ

reliance

upon a hill

Sumptuary Laws

John Donne, 17th century English Metaphysical poet

Click images for links to audio recordings of poems

Anne Bradstreet, 17th century New England Puritan poet

Early Puritan RHETORIC

John Winthrop, 1st governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company

“A Model of Christian Charity”Sermon delivered on the Arbella

God’s elect

Marriage between God and Puritans

contract :special commission

covenant with articles

to be ratified

we become a perjured people

and prosecute our carnal (non-spiritual) intentions

for breach of such a covenant

If we fail

Legal

Let’s analyze the rhetoric

IsraelitesPuritans

Puritans Israelites

Totally reliant on God’s direct commands

Father/child

Obedience

Breach of covenant = disobedience

Self-reliance – must interpret God’s will

Marriage

Personal responsibility

Breach of covenant = perjury

Both

Must maintain single communal will (“one body”)

Terrible risks involved (“God’s wrath”)

Enormous spiritual errand (“God’s will”)

Story in the making

As a city upon a hill

Our Fathers wrung their bread from stocks and stones And fenced their gardens with the Redman's bones; Embarking from the Nether Land of Holland, Pilgrims unhouseled by Geneva's night, They planted here the Serpent's seeds of light; And here the pivoting searchlights probe to shock The riotous glass houses built on rock, And candles gutter by an empty altar, And light is where the landless blood of Cain Is burning, burning the unburied grain .

Children of Light

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