Rhetorical Analysis Of The Mindless Menace Of Violence

Delaney Sullivan
Ms. Jonte
AP Language
07 March 2023
Mindless Menace of Violence
Robert F. Kennedy in his speech, The Mindless Menace of Violence conveys that skin color should not divide Americans. Kennedy supports his assertion by identifying the violent and radical nature of some Americans and the complaisant nature of others. The author’s purpose is to convince the audience to seek a common purpose that all Americans share in order to unify the country for their combined prosperity. Kennedy speaks in an educated, calm, and composed tone, to address the issue at hand, while keenly aware of the volatile situation of the crowds following the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior “MLK”. By condemning violence and acknowledging the dangers

Kennedy shifts his tone to address the audience who are indifferent to the violence. He makes it clear that this behavior is just as destructive to the oppressed as the behavior of those who are overtly violent against those who are different from them. To establish this connection Kennedy uses many different metaphors such as “For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay…This is a slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.” These metaphors bring a personally relatable aspect to the seemingly harmless course of inaction during these times and provide detailed examples from different scenarios that are similar. For example, a bomb in the night cannot be seen, however, its effects will most certainly be felt. In addition to these metaphors, Kennedy uses specific language to target the audience and juxtapose them with their opposite. “[T]hen you also learn to confront not as fellow citizens but as enemies” or “We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens,” He uses these drastic comparisons to draw the audience to recognize for themselves the division, and therefore redirect them to bridge that division toward a common goal and purpose. He establishes that while there is so much disagreement and friction between the different groups based on social biases, everyone seeks the same things in life as human