ipl-logo

Rhetorical Analysis Of 'The Ballot Or The Bullet'

1483 Words6 Pages

Civil Rights Activist, Malcolm X, in his speech “The Ballot or The Bullet” addressed the issue that the black community needs to take action about how the government treats them unfairly. Malcolm’s purpose was to emphasize the idea that the black community needs to be informed about the political community. He praises the idea that they had let the government blind them for a way too long. He chose this speech to express cause and effect within the black community because he wants his audience to see that they are being taken advantage of. The purpose was to allow black people to realize the events that were happening in their lives. Malcolm X began his speech by analyzing his audience and declaring that it is time to decide whether to vote …show more content…

With this discussion, he uses the appeal to pathos. The uses emotional appeals are featured in paragraphs 11-14. Malcolm uses emotions because he wants the audience to feel the events in America especially when it comes the time to vote. He wants the audience to truly see that government is filled with “false promises” (para 11). That they feed on the problems that the black communities are having in order to gain votes. However, he clarifies that they have yet to see the America dream but only to experience the “American nightmare” (para 11). That is they have been politically informed then they will recognize that each election will end with the same outcome. He acknowledges that they black people have the power to determine who is in office and who is not. Malcolm stresses that the black community makes up the 80% of the Democratic Party and with that percentage they are the ones who put a democrat in the White House. He emphasizes that “the Negro vote is the key factor” (para 12) that it is the only reason why they Democratic Party is a part of the government. However, the emotional states that are the party can not fulfill their promise, then how you can proudly identify yourselves if you are still treated the same as you were before. Because election time is a time where the black community is taken advantage of; Malcolm X addresses the issue about the legislation civil rights with defines the right to guarantee the voting rights to the “Negros” within the states. He explains to the black community that they the government hold their rights to vote because the senators fear that if the Negros are allowed to vote those senators will become powerless. Malcolm wants the audiences to understand they have the power to change America or still continue to allow the government to control

Show More
Related

Malcolm X Book Report

971 Words | 4 Pages

Organized into six topical groups, the author did an excellent job in comparing and contrasting King and Malcolm’s views on subjects including integration, the American dream, means of struggle, and opposing racial philosophies that needless any improvement. An interpretive introductory essay, chronology, bibliography, document headnotes, and questions for consideration provide further pedagogical support for students. The author explains how Malcolm X came closer than any social reformer in history to embodying and articulating the totality of the African experience in America while Martin Luther King was not only the most important figure in American religious history in the 20th century, he was arguably its most brilliant

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of The Ballot Or The Bullet

542 Words | 3 Pages

Civil rights leader, Malcolm X, in his speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” uses the teachings of Black Nationalism to assert that black people must take political action to gain equal rights. X hopes to unite the Black Community, so they can take action against a government that has denied them their rights. X uses an emphatic tone to rally his African American brothers and sisters in the fight for political representation. X needs his audience, whom he admits may be his enemies, to trust him in order to fulfill his purpose.(1). X uses words that characterize him positively in the eyes of the audience when he describes his understanding as “little” and “humble (1).

Read More

Malcolm X's Rhetoric In The Ballot Or The Bullet

298 Words | 2 Pages

During a tumultuous time in US History, when brave Americans across the country were fighting in the civil rights movement, a leader emerged; Malcolm X, who promoted black empowerment, self-defense, retaliation, and separation over the peaceful protest and integration of other civil rights leaders of his time. During the election year of 1964, on April 3rd, to a crowd of mostly African-Americans, Malcolm X delivered his public speech “The Ballot or the Bullet,” an address focused on the importance of politics and a change in philosophy. Malcolm X, through his passionate rhetoric within “The Ballot or the Bullet,” wishes to persuade African American communities to unify their strength and utilize their voting power in order to lead the black

Read More

The Ballot Or The Bullet Rhetorical Analysis

607 Words | 3 Pages

Most of the time he creates pathos by evoking feelings of pride, rage, and anger. Powerful language and vocabulary is used to bring out an emotional outcry and agreement from his audience. The pathos is so well done that even one who listens to the speech decades later can still feel the power in Malcolm’s words. He demonstrates pathos in this quote: “ They don't have second-class citizenship in any other government on this Earth. They just have slaves and people who are free!

Read More

The Ballot Or The Bullet Summary

472 Words | 2 Pages

The speech opened the eyes of many blacks, inspiring a change to begin to occur. Through analogies, metaphors, and a vitriolic and urgent tone, Malcolm X concisely and clearly informs the audience of their mistreatment and encourages them to get their just deserts. X’s intelligence, passion, and oratorical skills helped make “The Ballot or the Bullet” one of the greatest rhetorical acts in black history. This phrase, “The Ballot or the Bullet”, truly defines Malcolm X’s stance on the current treatment of blacks and how he believes a violent response is necessary when all other means of communication are ignored or

Read More

Analysis Of The Ballot Or The Bullet By Malcom X

167 Words | 1 Pages

The question of “the bullet or the ballot” is a central component of the Civil Rights movement because it demonstrated how African Americans needed to take actions, whether it be through voting in the 1964 election or taking up arms, to defend and express their equality against those who are oppressing them. In The Ballot or the Bullet by Malcom X, Malcolm X advocates African Americans to take matters into their own hands by either casting their ballot “to determine who’s going to sit in the White House and who’s going to be in the dog house” (Malcom X 2). By contrast, Martin Luther King Jr. advocates for an engagement of Civil Disobedience by calling for nonviolent direct action which allows for African Americans to be heard by forcing their

Read More

The Ballot Or The Bullet Essay

1318 Words | 6 Pages

Malcolm X and his ideals are arguably a representation of the transition from the early 1950 's non-violent movement for integration to a more aggressive black power movement. Evidence of this is shown through powerful strands of his novel “The Ballot or the Bullet” including when he writes, “I don 't mean go out and get violent, but at the same time you should never be non-violent unless you run into some non-violence.” (Malcolm 439). In writing that members of the civil rights movement should never be non-violent he does so facetiously. This excerpt indicates a call for violence as a more powerful method for achieving the equality he feels they deserve.

Read More

Malcolm X Bullet

1328 Words | 6 Pages

Malcolm X the Activist: Analysis of “The Ballot or the Bullet” Speech On April 12, 1964, Malcom X gives “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech at Cory Methodist Church in Detroit, Michigan. Malcolm’s main purpose of the speech is to persuade African Americans to fight for their right to vote and to warn the U.S. government that if they restrict minorities from equality, violence will in turn take effect (Montoya 211). Malcolm X is speaking to his intended audience, which is the black community, about taking action for the Black Nationalist movement, and he also addresses his unintended audience, which is the white community and the United States government, in order to show that he is serious about the revolution and they need to act or violence

Read More

Compare And Contrast I Have A Dream And Martin Luther King Jr.

719 Words | 3 Pages

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were both two African American civil rights activists who were very prominent throughout history. They fought for what they believed in but in vastly different ways. Martin Luther King Jr. was born to a middle class family and was well educated. Malcolm X, on the other hand, grew up in a rather hostile environment with barely enough schooling. Both their speeches, “I Have a Dream” and “The Ballot or the Bullet” may have shared some common traits, but at the same time, differed greatly in various aspects.

Read More

Give Us The Ballot Speech Analysis

958 Words | 4 Pages

Civil Rights Leader, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., in his speech, “Give Us the Ballot”, emphasizes the importance of African American suffrage and urges many groups of people to do what they can to help this cause. King’s purpose is to inspire the black community to fight for their right to vote through nonviolent protest. He adopts a tone of urgency in order to encourage action from the African American audience, as well as from politicians, white northern liberals, and moderate southerners. Martin Luther King Jr. begins his speech by vilifying the institutions which disobey the Supreme Court’s decision to allow black people to vote and by expounding how the newly enfranchised African American community will vote to make changes in the

Read More

Malcolm X's Speech The Black Revolution

904 Words | 4 Pages

A man called Dr.Powell invited him to the Abyssinian Baptist Church (church where he directed the speech “The Black Revolution”). The members of this church did not share the same points of view as to those of Malcolm’s. This is the main reason why Malcolm decided to present his speech there. His goal in this speech was to persuade individuals of this church to complete the widespread segregation. He completed persuading him by stirring them up emotionally.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Learning To Read By Malcolm X

116 Words | 1 Pages

In “Learning to Read”, Malcolm X uses rhetorical analysis to argue how African Americans continued to struggle in gaining education due to racism. He informs people that through our history books, there have been modifications that restrain the truth about the struggles black people faced. Malcolm X encouraged his audience to strive to get the rights that they deserved. He demonstrates that knowledge is very important because the truth empowers us. In his interview he persuades his audience with diction, tone, pathos, ethos, and appeal to emotion to make his point.

Read More

Thesis Statement On Malcolm X

717 Words | 3 Pages

Introduction: Malcom X urges the Negro community to fight to gain the equal rights they deserve by taking action against their white oppressors. He emphasizes that blacks will gain their rights either thorough voting, with the ballot, or else through the inevitable violence with the bullet. Thesis [part a] Like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., also fighting for the civil rights of black Americans in the 1960s, but in a more peaceful manner, Malcom X takes a different approach.

Read More

What Is The Metaphors In The Ballot Or The Bullet

678 Words | 3 Pages

In America at the time The Ballot or the Bullet was given, segregation was still occurring. Malcolm X was a fighter for civil rights. In 1964 there was going to be a presidential election. Malcolm X was a civil rights leader and part of The Nation of Islam. He gave this speech on April third in order to talk about both the election and how African-American people should proceed in order to benefit from the election.

Read More

Summary Of Malcolm X's Speech By Any Means Necessary

395 Words | 2 Pages

According to X, “The ballot or the bullet”... “Now in speaking like this, it doesn't mean that we're anti­-white, but it does mean we're anti­-exploitation,we're anti­-degradation, we're anti­-oppression. And if the white man doesn't want us to be anti-­him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us”(Malcolm #2). The essence of Malcolm’s argument is that he is not anti white, he is anti whites oppressing and disenfranchising African Americans and if the white person wants to not be hated, then he should stop hating himself. In a letter written in Mecca, Malcolm X says,“on this pilgrimage, what I have seen,and experienced, has forced me to re-arrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions” (Malcolm X).

Read More

More about Rhetorical Analysis Of 'The Ballot Or The Bullet'

Related Topics

Open Document