fourth of july speech

            What I would expect from a fourth of July speech is what Douglass does. He evokes patriotism and supports the United States of America. Although he is not because obnoxious about his patriotism for his country instead he is comparing it to countries that have been around for thousands of years, and showing that even though we’re a new state, it is better. For example he tells that in comparison to older countries we are in the “childhood” stages of ours, which demonstrates, hope. He means that as bad as some things may get, a child (our country) will not get discouraged but rather look optimistically to the future. He also flip flops it and says seventy-six years old, is good age for man. So either way you were to look at the countries age, they are both good. This helps to support the USA because it shows even though it’s in the learning stages; it is not to be discouraged.

            There is use of all three rhetorical strategies in Douglass’ speech. For example logos; he says when talking about the Fourth of July story, he’s not going to sugar coat it. The fact was, US people were “British subjects”. He told it like it was, and explained that while trying to be respectful at first, the people would not stand for being ruled by the British crown. Another example is ethos. Douglass helps mold he character by being polite, addressing the crowd as “ladies and gentleman”. In the beginning of his speech he also makes himself appear very modest. For example, he says, “Should I seem at ease, my appearance would much misrepresent me.” He goes on to tell of his little experience in public speaking in a small country schoolhouse. I believe he attempts to illustrate his modest and inexperience character, as to connect himself with the people and to show he is not superior, and feels the same exact way they are feeling. This brings me to the last rhetorical strategy and the most dominant which is pathos. His speech is chockfull of feeling and emotion; using words like forlorn, disgraceful and astonished. He also uses words like demand, to show the severity of his emotion and opinions. The use of these words helps heightened emotion and show how powerful his feelings are on the matter. It also takes on almost a theatrical setting because of description and details he shares. Pathos is definitely the most prominent rhetorical strategy, because if you were to remove it from the speech, it would be extremely bland and dry.