1.7k views
0 votes
*******Extremely urgent********

Write an essay that analyzes the rhetorical choices Jones makes to achieve his purpose of introducing the reader to the book. (You can just tell me the rhetorical devices Jones uses “at least three” that’s fine too.)

Text: A quarter of a million people, human beings who generally had spent their lives treated as something less, stood shoulder to shoulder across that vast lawn, their hearts beating as one. Hope on the line. When hope was an increasingly scarce resource.

There is no dearth of prose describing the mass of humanity that made its way to the feet of the Great Emancipator2 that day; no metaphor that has slipped through the cracks waiting to be discovered, dusted off, and injected into the discourse a half century on. The March on Washington has been compared to a tsunami, a shockwave, a wall, a living monument, a human mosaic, an outright miracle.

It was all of those things, and if you saw it with your own eyes, it wasn’t hard to write about. With that many people in one place crying out for something so elemental, you don’t have to be Robert Frost to offer some profound eloquence.

Still, I can say to those who know the event only as a steely black-and-white television image, it’s a shame that the colors of that day—the blue sky, the vibrant green life, the golden sun everywhere—are not part of our national memory. There is something heart-wrenching about the widely shown images and film clips of the event that belies the joy of the day. But it could be worse. We could have been marching in an era before cameras and recording devices; then the specifics of the event would eventually fade out of living memory and the world would be left only with the mythology and the text. Text without context, in this case especially, would be quite a loss. One might imagine standing before an audience and reading Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech verbatim, but it is a stretch to believe that any such performance would sow the seeds of change with, as Dr. King put it that day in Washington, the “fierce urgency of now.” The vast crowd, the great speaker, the words that shook the world—it all comes as a package deal. We are truly fortunate to have a record. Yet what the television cameras and radio microphones captured that August day is but a sliver of the vibrancy of the event. When a film adaptation of a beloved novel premieres, the people who say “Oh, but you’ve got to read the book” are inevitably right. The density of the written word makes the flat motion picture a pale artifact in comparison. In a similar fashion, although watching the black-and-white news footage of Dr. King’s historic call to action is stirring to almost everyone who sees it, learning about the work that went into The March and the speech—the discussions and debates behind closed doors—offers a unique context that magnifies the resonance of hearing those famous words “I have a dream” in that phenomenal, inimitable cadence.

If taken together, the images and recordings of Martin make up that “movie” of the 1963 March on Washington in our collective consciousness, and if it’s true, as people often say, that “If you loved the movie, you’ve got to read the book,” Behind the Dream is that book. It is a story not known to the general public or disclosed to participants in The March—or, in fact, to many of its organizers. I acquired private truths and quiet insights during the months leading up to this historic event. For the most part, I’ve kept them to myself. But as this book is published, I will be entering my eighth decade on this Earth, and as I move closer to the final horizon, I realize the time has come to share what I know. The experiences cannot die with me; the full truth is simply too important to history.

2 Answers

5 votes

Answer:

use the search engine c h a t GPT to write the essay

Step-by-step explanation:

User Solbs
by
7.9k points
3 votes

In his introduction to the book, Behind the Dream, Clarence B. Jones uses various rhetorical devices to achieve his purpose of introducing the reader to the book. The first device he employs is imagery, which helps the reader visualize the scene and feel the emotions of the quarter-million people who stood shoulder to shoulder on the lawn during the March on Washington. Jones uses phrases like "their hearts beating as one," "hope on the line," and "something so elemental" to convey the intensity of the moment and the significance of the event.

Jones also uses metaphor to compare the March on Washington to a tsunami, a shockwave, a wall, a living monument, a human mosaic, and an outright miracle. These metaphors serve to emphasize the magnitude of the march and its impact on history. They also create a sense of awe and wonder in the reader, making them more interested in learning about the event and its significance.

Another rhetorical device that Jones employs is contrast. He contrasts the widely shown images and film clips of the march, which are black and white, with the vibrant colors of the day that are not part of our national memory. He also contrasts the written word with the flat motion picture, arguing that the density of the written word makes the movie a pale artifact in comparison. These contrasts serve to highlight the importance of context and the need to understand the full story behind the March on Washington.

Jones also uses repetition to drive home his point about the importance of context. He repeats the phrase "text without context" and argues that it would be quite a loss to have only the mythology and text of the event without the specifics and the context. This repetition emphasizes the importance of understanding the full story and knowing the work that went into the march and the speech, which can magnify the resonance of hearing those famous words "I have a dream" in that phenomenal, inimitable cadence.

In conclusion, Clarence B. Jones uses a combination of imagery, metaphor, contrast, and repetition to achieve his purpose of introducing the reader to the book, Behind the Dream. These rhetorical devices help the reader visualize the scene, feel the emotions of the quarter-million people, emphasize the magnitude of the event, highlight the importance of context, and drive home the point about the significance of the full story.

User Dan Sanderson
by
8.2k points

No related questions found