Gettysburg Address Rhetorical Devices

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At Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln appears to give a brief devotion to the Civil War soldiers, who gave their lives there. Lincoln addresses the past and the present to focus on building a more prominent future. With minimal time to prepare the speech Lincoln had to include many expressions with a rhetorical effect to give a deeper meaning. Lincoln refers to the past by saying that eighty-seven years ago, the Founding Fathers created the Declaration of Independence explaining as to why the colonists were breaking. The creators intended this new nation to be “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Lincoln addresses how we are in a great civil war because our nation no longer complies with the basic …show more content…

Lincoln informs us that we may not let those courageous men die in vain. He believes by reflecting from our past we will have a new birth of freedom and the nation and its people will survive. Lincoln was given very little time to create this speech and the language of the speech was chosen with great detail. Not only did he want to dedicate a portion of the grounds to the brave soldiers, Lincoln also wanted to use this gathering as time to boost morale for the war. In the beginning it is a clear dedication to the soldiers and all the men who sacrificed their lives on that field. Then, Lincoln changes from literal justification to a metaphorical description as to why we must honor the fallen men. He uses this speech to dedicate grounds to the men who gave their lives but he also sees it as an opportunity to boost the morale of the men still at war. Lincoln tells how it is up to us, the living, to conquer what the brave men have started. As we see the speech was not only for the men who had sacrificed their lives but it is a reminder to the rest of the people about what we stand for as a nation---and that we must continue to fight or this country will not