Rhetorical Analysis Of Enoch Powell's Speech 'Rivers Of Blood'
Makayla Kirby
Mrs. Wilinski
English 10 3rd Hour
13 January 2016
Rivers of Blood “As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see “The River Tiber foaming with much blood.” These were the famous words of Enoch Powell in his “Rivers of Blood” speech. With his use of rhetorical devices and fallacies, his speech came off as very effective.
Before Powell gave his speech, in Wolverhampton, England around twenty or thirty immigrants were arriving overseas and around fifteen to twenty additional families were coming to England. As a country they were allowing fifty-thousand immigrants to come in, allowing the immigrant-descended population to grow. “We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation,” Enoch made people believe.
“For Powell, immigration was a threat to …show more content…
This rhetorical device was used to his advantage by asking questions he knew how to answer, to make people believe that he knew exactly what he was talking about. It made him seem smarter than he already was by being able to answer the questions on the spot. An example of this is when he said “I can already hear the chorus of execration. How dare I say such a horrible thing? How dare I stir up trouble and inflame feelings by repeating such a conversation? The answer is that I do not have the right not to do so.” Anaphora was another device that was used. The use of repetition helped get his point across to his audience.
Although fallacies normally weaken a speech, Enoch Powell used his effective enough to strengthen his. He grouped people together using argument from omniscience, making the people wonder if they were part of the minority that he was talking about. There were also a large amount of euphemisms and connotations to have people more intrigued and nervous about what he was speaking of. He referred to the immigrants as evil multiple times to make sure that everyone would believe him and agree on the fact that they were an evil group of
Mrs. Wilinski
English 10 3rd Hour
13 January 2016
Rivers of Blood “As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding; like the Roman, I seem to see “The River Tiber foaming with much blood.” These were the famous words of Enoch Powell in his “Rivers of Blood” speech. With his use of rhetorical devices and fallacies, his speech came off as very effective.
Before Powell gave his speech, in Wolverhampton, England around twenty or thirty immigrants were arriving overseas and around fifteen to twenty additional families were coming to England. As a country they were allowing fifty-thousand immigrants to come in, allowing the immigrant-descended population to grow. “We must be mad, literally mad, as a nation,” Enoch made people believe.
“For Powell, immigration was a threat to …show more content…
This rhetorical device was used to his advantage by asking questions he knew how to answer, to make people believe that he knew exactly what he was talking about. It made him seem smarter than he already was by being able to answer the questions on the spot. An example of this is when he said “I can already hear the chorus of execration. How dare I say such a horrible thing? How dare I stir up trouble and inflame feelings by repeating such a conversation? The answer is that I do not have the right not to do so.” Anaphora was another device that was used. The use of repetition helped get his point across to his audience.
Although fallacies normally weaken a speech, Enoch Powell used his effective enough to strengthen his. He grouped people together using argument from omniscience, making the people wonder if they were part of the minority that he was talking about. There were also a large amount of euphemisms and connotations to have people more intrigued and nervous about what he was speaking of. He referred to the immigrants as evil multiple times to make sure that everyone would believe him and agree on the fact that they were an evil group of