Eric Thomas Rhetorical Devices

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Eric Thomas is an inspirational speaker who presented the speech “I can, I will, I must”. It is a speech that uses rhetorical devices like: anaphora, emotive language and direct address. It's about inspiring people who are going through tough circumstances specially for homeless and poor people. When analyzing the essay we can see how he uses rhetoric devices to convey the message he wants to send through his speech.

Firstly, the writer Eric Thomas uses a rhetorical device called anaphora. He used it to make a point stand out, to make a pattern so that people can remember it. For example the first time he uses anaphora he says “if we have one more struggle, one more defeat, one more disappointment, one more setback”. He used this device to make the audience realize we can´t have more struggles, here anaphora is used to catch the audience's attention. Another quote in which Thomas used anaphora was “we can’t take another disappointment, we can’t take another loss, we can’t take another setback, we can’t fail another exam, we can't get evicted another time” Thomas uses anaphora in this sentence to remark the same points as above. He uses it to inspire people and make them want a better lifestyle. Once again Thomas uses anaphora to not only inspire people but grab their attention. …show more content…

Emotive language is moving language, appealing to the audience’s emotions. An example of Thomas using emotive language is when he says “it's not going to be easy but it can be done” here he uses emotive language to give people hope. When he says this he wants people to be resilient for them to keep going and not give up. Another time he uses emotive language is in the famous phrase “I can, I will, I must” he uses it to give the audience an orientation to not give up without actually saying it toas same as above give