Rhetorical Devices In Speech By Mayor Mitch Landrieu

Throughout history, each country its defining moment. A moment that can either be famous or infamous. In American history, the most gruesome conflict America ever faced within its borders was the Civil War. It was not America’s finest moment in time. As a country, America and its people have grown from it. In the words of the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush, “A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and it corrects them.” Of course, this is easier said than done. In Louisiana, this seemingly good-natured quote was put to the test in May of 2017. Mayor Mitch Landrieu and his fellow associates decided to remove four Confederate monuments. During the process of tearing the monuments down, Mayor Landrieu

Landrieu used devices such as anaphora, hyperboles, and allusions to bring out raw emotions from his audience. In his speech, he blatantly described how New Orleans was one of the biggest slave markets by using an anaphora. He states that, “New Orleans was one of America’s largest slave markets, a port where hundreds of thousands of souls were bought, sold, and shipped up the Mississippi River to lives of forced labor, of misery, of rape, and of torture.” He does not shy away from stating the painful truth of the beloved city of New Orleans, which is known to be a melting pot of diverse

Mayor Landrieu is known to be appealing to both African Americans and Caucasians from the results of the voting poles ("City of New Orleans - Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu"). Logically, revering these statues is preposterous in this day in age. Given that they were erected years after the war between 1884 and 1915 because of a movement made to honor the Confederacy, or also known as the Cult of the Lost Cause, and white supremacy (Speighs-Binet). These facts were stated by Landrieu in his speech. There is no excuse to revere these men that were on the wrong side of humanity and that were against America. Landrieu uses a hyperbole when stating that, “Now, with these shocking words still ringing in your ears, I want to try to gently peel your hands from the grip on this false narrative of our history that I think weakens us…” The monuments are part of America’s ashamed history, and they should be remembered, but not in this