Rhetorical Analysis Of William Faulkner's Speech

In his speech to University High School’s graduating class of 1951, William Faulkner establishes that the only thing standing against man in the battle of good and evil is fear. He persuades these young people that they have the power to fight against fear by using allusions to past and present events, and by appealing to the students’ sense of hope and confidence. In the speech, Faulkner references the Cold War, the major global conflict at that time and for many years to come. He proves that the only power the atomic bomb held over man was the fear of it, but that it was not the biggest danger to mankind. Faulkner explained that all the “Napoleons and Hitlers”-the ‘evil’ tyrants of the world- were the real danger to man: they preyed on man’s