Outline for Comparative Essay: Malcolm X and MLK

Anthony Moore
Nottingham
English 3 B1
12/13/13
Outline for Comparative Essay
1. Thesis- Although King uses great allusions and much reasoning to get his point across, I feel that Malcolm X was more persuasive in his speech, The ballot or the bullet, because of his ability to connect with his audience with his extensive use of Anaphora and Asyndeton/Polysyndeton. Emphasising his points with anaphora/epistrophe.
-Malcolm X, Anaphora, Polysyndeton, Asyndeton, Metaphor
-Audience Easier to persuade
2. Compare different ways of using rhetorical device -Easily persuaded audience - Emphasising points through anaphora/epistrophe
"They don't hang you because you're a Baptist; they hang you 'CAUSE YOU'RE BLACK. They don't attack me because I'm a Muslim; they attack me 'CAUSE I'M BLACK. They attack all of us for the SAME reason; all of us catch hell from the SAME enemy. We're all in the SAME bag, in the SAME boat... THE GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED US... and you walkin' around here singing "We Shall Overcome"- THE GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED US."
-X's use of repetition emphasizes the similarities between him and the audience, establishing a common ground.
-X uses this common ground to say that his difference in religion is irrelevant and creates a sense of unity by claiming all of their problems come from the same source
“But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and your brothers and whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity… when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of nobodiiness” (1208 p 2)
This use of anaphora, and the intense imagery in king’s part is very strong, having the reader walk in his own shoes. But with the different audience, it is a lot easier for X’s audience to relate, given that they actually have experienced this struggle.
3. Compare the different rhetorical devices used (i.e anaphora, metaphors, and allusions) -King’s allusions to biblical figures to connect with his clergymen (St Augustine, Jesus Christ) -X’s ability to get connected with his audience with Anaphora and metaphors
"They've become dissatisfied, and all of this has built up frustrations in the black community that makes the black community throughout America today more explosive than all of the atomic bombs the Russians can ever invent"
-By 1961, Russia and the US, in the Nuclear arms race, made enough bombs to destroy the world
-Lets the audience know that there is more frustration than nonviolence can counteract. So violence is inevitable anyway.
4. Conclusion