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What Is The Metaphors In The Ballot Or The Bullet

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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. In the speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” Malcolm X utilizes antithesis, allusion, and metaphors in order to convince his audience to take a stand against segregation whether peacefully, if possible, and if not, by force. The first of the three strategies X used in this speech was Antithesis. As he introduces the speech, uses the phrase, “Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist.” All of these people have very different …show more content…

While comparing the lives of the African American people to that of the white people, he uses the term, “Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner…” He uses the diner as a metaphor for America. White people are able to eat from the table, symbolizing how much freedom the white people had in America at the time. The other metaphor used was used throughout the speech. “In 1964, it's the ballot or the bullet.” The entire speech is a metaphor. He repeats “the ballot or the bullet” multiple times, always drawing his argument back to it. The ballot is fighting peacefully, voting for rights in order to rid the country of segregation. The bullet is force. If peacefully fighting won’t work, then fighting with actual force will. The metaphors found in The Ballot or the Bullet In the speech “The Ballot or the Bullet,” Malcolm X uses Antithesis, Allusion, and Metaphor in order to impress upon his audience the importance of fighting back against segregation. Whether by peace or by force, the audience must fight. Remaining silent is not an

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At the time of this speech, April 12, 1964, the entire nation knows who Malcolm X is. His popularity automatically provides a lot of ethos. To add to that, Malcolm X is a praised speaker amongst the African American community, and is African American himself. Since his audience is towards all Blacks and African Americans, the aforementioned traits helps build a very good amount of ethos. Malcolm uses a lot of inclusive language to increase his ethos.

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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

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Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American activist, once said, “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.” In the Jim Crow South in the 1930s, the setting of the film The Great Debaters, directed by Denzel Washington in 2007, King’s words were particularly relevant. James Farmer Jr., the main character of the film, argues King’s point in the final debate about civil disobedience between Harvard and Wiley College. Although the Wiley debaters rely effectively on the strategy of ethos, the keys to their victory are the strategies pathos and logos.

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