Meín Kampf Rhetorical Analysis

A single book was able to convince an entire country to support and love a tyrannical dictator who became responsible for one of the most deadly genocides in history. This book was Meín Kampf and it is the autobiography of Adolf Hitler. In order to influence the immense number of people that he did, the author employed several rhetorical devices to convey his message. The author successfully delivered his ideals by mainly using ethos and pathos both supported with minor logos. The main rhetorical tool used in Meín Kampf was ethos. The first way he used ethos was to improve his decorum and show that he was a trustworthy leader. He begins to do this on the very first page where he begins by describing his humble beginnings. He also goes into detail to show how he always believed and thought of himself as a German despite being born in Austria. He does this because he wishes to be accepted by the German public, which is the book’s target audience. He then further Germanizes his image to the audience by showing how he embodies their values. He does this by describing his enthusiasm when

First, it bolsters his character by showing the deplorable conditions that he lived in and what he endured. Secondly, the storytelling strikes a very strong emotional cord with the audience. By causing the extreme emotion its makes the audience more open to his logic and less likely to object to or notice any flaws that there may be. He often does this with using patriotism too. After world war one, Germany was is a desolate condition, they despised what the other countries did to them in the Treaty of Versailles. By taking advantage of this anger, the author stirred up a strong sense of pride through invoking patriotism. The final goal of these emotions is to mask his blaming of unconnected parties, the Jews and Marxists. With pathos, he successfully caused the lapses in his logic to go by unnoticed and he further built his