Rhetorical Analysis: The Ballot Or The Bullet

An author’s purpose is to make their readers feel something or some kind of way by conveying emotions, ideas, and thoughts. This is achieved by utilizing three different appeals- pathos, ethos, and logos- in order to create a cohesive story or argument. Independently, each appeal is weak and does not make for a very convincing story or argument, but when used in unison all three are extremely effective and complement each other well. When taking into account Malcom X’s speech, The Ballot or the Bullet, each line contains a separate appeal but often one line may be considered as multiple appeals combined. Rhetorically, the use of appeals is what makes this speech so successful and persuasive to X’s intended audience. Having credibility

Logos, the most important of all appeals, provides a logic to an argument by providing “reason an evidence to support claims” (Lunsford et al). The entire seventh and eighth paragraphs of The Ballot or the Bullet is an appeal to logic. X explains how the fight for civil rights holds no candle to the fight for human rights. Civil rights are unique to the US and cannot be fought for by anyone other than Americans, because outsiders have no say in how the US government works or what rights are bestowed (X 2). However, all humans my fight for and defend human rights. The United Nations for example, has an entire General Assembly committee that’s sole purpose if is to discus and protect human rights issues (X 2). X also goes onto demonstrate how issues regarding African, Hungary, Asia, and Latin American have all been brought before the UN to be debated upon and resolves, but how there hasn’t ever been an incident where a problem specifically about Negros brought to the UN (X 2). These scenarios don’t sound very logical, the world cares about everyone but the Negro community? No, the world doesn’t know about issues happening in the US with not only segregation, but white hypocrisy (X 2). X shows Americans are always so busy worrying about civil rights and changing them and protecting them, when in reality

A successful author can incorporate aspects into his/her writings that are relatable and make the reader feel something. Pathos is an emotional appeal that “stirs feelings and often invoke values that the audience is assumed to hold” (Lunsford et al) Concerning emotions, the entire speech is meant to make the reader feel something, whether it be angry, empowered, or outraged, and while ethos is the last appeal Malcom X uses to convey his message, and in paragraph three a major usage is found. X uses a metaphor of dining to compare eating to being an American (X 1). Malcom X introduces that idea that just because a person is invited into an event, doesn’t mean they are going to be included into the conversation (X 1). “I’m not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner, unless you eat some of what’s on that plate” (X 1). Through this, the readers morals are put into play. If the reader put themselves at the table and gave food to someone but wouldn’t let them eat it, that would be extremely rude, and the person they gave the food to would believe the reader has bad morals and