Rhetoric Devices- ANTITHESIS
Antithesis
: the
placing of a sentence or one of its parts against another to which it is
opposed to form a balanced contrast of ideas
Examples)
- "We
must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
(Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964)
- "Tonight you voted for action, not politics
as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours."(President Barack Obama, election night victory speech, November 7, 2012)
- “Give me liberty or give me death
(Martin Luther King, Jr., speech at St. Louis, 1964)
Such rhetorical devices can often be seen many times in speeches, especially in those given by presidents. One of the examples is president Obama's 2nd inaugural speech, which you can see right now, right here -
I also found a very helpful site that mentions all the rhetoric devices used in president Obama's 2nd Inaugural speech, and the link is
Just to give you an example of how it is done, here is a short excerpt from the entire script:
"We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few. We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away (TRICOLON & POLYSYNDETON) in a terrible storm. The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security (TRICOLON), these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us (ANTITHESIS). They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks (ANTITHESIS) that make this country great."
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