Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Annalise Simons
Dr. Holt
English 12-2
12 May 2017
Because of the quantity of material that history and politics teachers must discuss,
students never really learn why certain politicians may gain larger followings than others. For
example, history teachers explain that Hitler came to power largely because he was extremely
charismatic. How did his charisma successfully convince Germans to follow? This same question
applies to leaders like Winston Churchill, Barack Obama, and Martin Luther King, Jr. What was
it about these figures oratory skills that appealed to certain demographics more than other
leaders? One may ask a similar question about best books: what makes one book better than
another? Everyone has his or her own set of subjective qualifications to classify best books. The
criteria to classify best books overlap with some of the essential skills to persuade. Therefore,
best books are the tools that prepare intellectuals to become successful persuaders and orators by
providing the necessary time to unpack the rhetorical skills in the texts; however, to be effective,
Readers learn key techniques by reading best books because bests provide the readers
with more time to delve into the text. Yes, some may read simply for entertainment; however,
many individuals put in extra time and effort to understand the arguments and rhetoric of the
texts. In his article What is a classic book? J Peder Zane asserts, Books are a delivery device
for information that helps us move more easily. We dont just read for pleasure, or even eternal
truths; we also read to gather information we need to understand ourselves and the world around
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us in order to move more easily, (Classic Book 5). This knowledge, gained through reading
best books, allows individuals to develop the necessary skillsets to become successful orators.
With all of the information that best books contain, a criterion for bests becomes the ability to
reread a text and gain new information in each rereading. Susan Sontag eloquently describes the
importance of rereading: I must reread it many times- Gide and I have attained such a perfect
intellectual communion that I experience the appropriate labor pains for every thought he gives
birth to! Thus I do not think: How marvelously lucid this is!but: Stop! I cannot think this
fast! Or rather I cannot grow this fast! ("Rereading as Rebirth" 2) Therefore, by rereading bests,
readers encounter valuable devices that may have been subdued in the previous readings. In
speeches as well as best books, authors use ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade. Ethos is about
establishing credibility as a speaker or author. Each author and speaker may establish credibility
in a different way, but individuals can combine and create new techniques by studying previously
used tactics. Logos is employing statistics and facts to corroborate arguments, which may also
contribute to ethos. Pathos is all about the emotional connection, which is pertinent to persuade a
crowd. Readers learn how to employ ethos, pathos, and logos through unpacking best books.
Best books also allow readers to examine the use of rhetorical devices, such as hyperboles,
metaphors, similes, and allusions first hand. The growth from investing time in reading best
One key skill that orators learn from best books is the ability to establish an emotional
connection with the audience. Is this emotional connection important? Vladimir Nabokov argues
the emotional connection with the reader and audience is essential. He claims, There are three
points of view from which a writer can be considered: he may be considered as a storyteller, as a
teacher, and as an enchanter. A major writer combines these threestoryteller, teacher, enchanter
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but it is the enchanter in him that predominates and makes him a major writer, (Vladimir
Nabokov on Writing, Reading 2). Nabokov, therefore, believes that enticing the reader makes
the author more effective than another author who fails to connect with the reader. In other
words, establishing an emotional connection is a criterion for best books. Take Frankenstein for
example. Mary Shelley establishes an emotional connection with the reader through her
illustrative descriptions through which even the most mundane moments allow the reader to feel
like a part of the text and to visualize the scene. By studying the descriptions in Frankenstein,
readers can learn how to describe and create narratives for themselves. According to Frederick
Mayer of Duke University, orators must tell stories in order to connect with the audience. He
states, Persuasive storytellers draw on familiar themes to create new narratives, to tell stories
that resonate with the religious, historical and ideological narratives their listeners already have
in mind, (Mayer). Humans are very well acquainted with narratives because of exposure to best
texts. Julia Beck, an Atlantic writer, even argues that stories are life, life is stories, (Beck 5).
Narratives are engrained into history and greatly influence culture and politics. Incorporating
stories in speeches helps mobilize the audience and spark change by creating a commonality.
Once readers learn valuable skills from best books, how do they incorporate the
newfound techniques into speeches? Churchill, Obama, and King all alluded to the past
numerous times in their most acclaimed speeches, and the predominant allusions in bests allow
the orators to gain exposure to allusions as a rhetorical device. For example, in the desolate time
during World War II, Churchill glorified the Elizabethan Era to appeal to the masses. By
highlighting the Golden Age in Englands history, Churchill provided the people with the hope
necessary to withstand the War. Martin Luther King, Jr. alludes to past orators in order to
establish a connection with the audience. In his I Have a Dream speech delivered on August
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28, 1963 at the March for Jobs and Freedom in D.C., King commenced his speech in the same
manner as Lincoln. He drew a parallel between Lincolns speech implying that the Civil War was
a fight against slavery and the Civil Rights Movement. He continued to reference the
Constitution, which is a highly regarded document to the American people, and American
spirituals in order to connect his speech to his history. In Words Like Loaded Pistols, Sam Leith
justifies that echoes of orators past are a way of taking possession of themof implying that
you are channeling those orators and all they represent, (Leith 169). King successfully appealed
to American pride and American Exceptionalism in order to excite the audience into action.
Obama incorporated voices of the past in a similar manner as King. For example, Obama also
maintained and showed off American history in order to establish a connection and make the
audience want to act. Sam Leith argues, his rhetoric, therefore, was consciously seeded with
echoes of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Lither King: Americas orator-hero and the martyred
figurehead of black Americas liberation struggle, (Leith 232). Besides connecting with the
people, what is the purpose of drawing such allusions? Frederick Mayer claims that leaders who
call a community to action not only use story to construct common interests in outcomes, they
seek to dramatize the moment so that, as King put it, listeners are pulled onto the stage of history,
becoming people whose choices will determine whether the collective drama will end in triumph
or tragedy, (Mayer). By incorporating the nations histories, the orators reminded the masses of
how life once was or what life could be in order to make the people want to join the cause.
Another way orators incite action is through excess in their speeches, which orators learn
from reading best books. Excess is a criterion for best texts as a tool to entice the audience and
emphasize key arguments. For example, Titus Andronicus has excessive violence that forces the
reader to remember past actions in the plot. Additionally, the violence prompts the readers to dig
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into the key arguments of the text: revenge, like any decision, has severe consequences. This
excess, whether in a text or speech, provokes a response and calls the audience to action. Obama
and King both employ repetition in excess as an instrument to excite the audience. By repeating
the same themes and ideas, the orators accentuate and draw attention to what is important. This
gave King the same response as with his sermons in church; the people reacted directly to Kings
key arguments because his emphasis revealed his belief in his claims. Obama accomplished the
same objective through alliteration and anaphora as tools for emphasis. These rhetorical devices
are evident in best books, but alliteration and anaphora are more effective in speeches than in
best books because the stress of repeated consonants and words emphasize key phrases as the
orators deliver the speeches. As Leith eloquently concludes, spoken rhetoric lives in the voice: a
speech is not just an essay read aloud, (Leith 210). Therefore, the orators must expand upon
their knowledge gained from the best texts in order to sway a live audience.
One key way that the orators must adapt their skillsets from best books is through Kairos,
or reading the moment and audience. Each orator establishes emotional connections in manners
that best connect with their people. Take Winston Churchill for example. One tactic Churchill
employed to appeal to the audience was to incorporate jokes into his speeches in order to lighten
the mood during the time of panic in World War II. Harold Nicholson argues that Churchill
combined great fights of oratory with sudden swoops into the intimate and the conversational,
(Leith 165). This combination gained the trust of the audience through an unconventional ethos
appeal. Churchill was also able to rally the people during times with little hope. In a 1941 radio
address to the British public, Churchill went as far as to make the listeners feel like a part of the
history: We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire Give us the tools and we will
finish the job, (Leith 169). Churchill, therefore, made the audience support his cause because he
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believed in the people and the strength of the government, and that belief trickled down to the
masses. Adolf Hitler, however, used shouting at the audience as a mechanism to appeal to the
people. Hitlers apparent fervor and confidence revealed that Hitler could lose control of his
emotions like any other human, but the emotion was rooted in his strong belief in his ideas. This
is a testament to ethos because Hitlers confidence made it seem like he knew what he was
talking about. These emotional outbursts are also an appeal to pathos because they grabbed
attention and invoked an emotional response. During Hitlers speeches, the audience no longer
made decisions through rationale, like one would do after reading a best book, but through
emotion and instinct. Therefore, successful orators must use their knowledge from best books in
Orators learn the skills necessary to become successful persuaders from reading best
books; however, the orators must adapt those skills to oration in order to gain a following.
Orators can learn from the writings of major writers in order to adopt a style completely their
own. For example, best books contain rhetorical devices, such as allusion, to justify claims.
Orators like Churchill, King, and Obama alluded to past successes or failures to inspire the
audience to either regain glory or make the changes to create a better society. Audiences at
speeches do not have the necessary time to rationalize the arguments of the speakers, like a
reader would when reading bests, so the orator must evoke an emotional response in the moment
strong enough to provoke action. That is why Hitler was so well received: he could read an
audience and translate his fervor into the German people. Best books, therefore, are dangerous
because, when in the wrong hands, a demagogue may emerge. Conversely, the next great
influential leader may also arise to change society for the better.
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Works Cited
Leith, Sam. Words like Loaded Pistols. New York, Basic Books, 2012.
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Mayer, Frederick. "Why Stories Are Powerful Spurs to Political Action." Scholars Strategy
Popova, Maria. "Susan Sontag on Storytelling, What It Means to Be a Moral Human Being,
---. "Rereading as Rebirth: Young Susan Sontag on Personal Growth, the Pleasures of
---. "Valdimir Nabokov on Writing, Reading, and the Three Qualities a Great Storyteller