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Rhetorical Analysis Of Things Fall Apart By James Baldwin

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The author James Baldwin uses many rhetorical devices to help convey his message that it is hard for black individuals to grow up in a racist society. Throughout the letter the appeal to emotions, wording and tone played a big part in presenting the idea that society judges every little thing. Baldwin wanted to inform his nephew that there is no need for him to mold himself into someone new to fit into society's expectations. By the use of emotions Baldwin presents his personal experience that proves that life is not fair towards everyone. Some people ignore the problem, they pretend that it does not exist, while others do not seem to care. Baldwin states, “I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has survived it and I know, which is much worse, and this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not …show more content…

Saying the reasons for which he believes society is in a way that not everyone meets its standards. In the letter it states, “Let me spell out precisely what I mean by that for the heart of the matter is here and the crux of my dispute with my country. You were born where you were born because you were black and for no other reason. The limits to your ambition were thus expected to be settled. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity and in as many ways as possible that you were a worthless human being.” By doing this he is giving incite of his experience with society using words like ‘crux’ to highlight that this is an issue that is important to him. He says that society’s expectations are in a way that would lead to failure, he blames those low expectations on the color of his skin that is being stereotyped by other people, referred to as country

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