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Chief Seattle’s oration rhetorical analysis
Chief Seattle’s oration
Analysis of the speech of Chief Seattle
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Chief Seattle’s speech is a message to Governor Isaac Stevens who is trying to take the Native American’s land. In this speech Chief Seattle is trying to convince Stevens to be fair with the Native Americans. Chief Seattle makes a powerful speech with the use of several rhetorical devices such as, metaphors, similes, and vivid language, throughout this piece. With these devices he is able to convey his message of sorrow and loss which allows his audience to paint a picture of this grief in their heads.
The evidence that Chief Seattle presents to Stevens in his speech is often metaphors or similes that are comparing nature to the lives of his people. This technique is found within the very first sentence of the speech “Yonder sky that has
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Although they were disappearing Chief Seattle warned that the “red children whose teeming multitudes once filled this vast continent as stars fill the firmament” (1641) Meaning that the native people who once filled the land are now they are all filling heaven because of the amount of deaths they have had. He is showing his audience that they have been outnumbered and that it is harder for them to fight back. However, he throws a punch back at Stevens and the “white men” or white settlers by stating “these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when your children’s children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone.” (1643). This line is saying that no matter where they go there will always be a spirit of one of the Natives with them because they took their land. This stab that Chief Seattle took at the white settlers shows that these two groups are extremely different because the white settlers didn’t care for the land like the Natives
gain whilst simultaneously pressuring actual Native Americans to assimilate into western European society. This connects to the poem as a whole because it connects to the after effects of
This piece is a primary source written directly to the American leader to effectively question social authority over people and physical land. Tecumseh is a Shawnee Native leader who strives to get attention of the newly appointed governor of the former Indian territory to appeal to him that the land does not belong to anyone. He appeals to Governor Harrison by using Christianity as basis for his argument. He claims that the beliefs of the Americans promotes terror and destruction arguing that Christianity is the wrong argument for taking over what once was shared by the Native American community. Since the revolution, the United States yearned to establish a strong military presence to claim power and territory for itself. We see in the Monroe doctrine that removing European influence from Latin America enables the U.S. to claim all the resources that are essential for development. These were the same resources that were abundant in the West, which encouraged Jefferson to design a team to identify more about it to later seize control. Tecumseh makes a logical argument for the future of the native tribes by proposing his own plans.He does not tolerate the violent and bloody way that the whites of the country employ to take control of false identified property. It is Tecumseh’s best decision to write this speech because the destruction and collapse to the native people is an inevitable future, that Tecumseh sees
Florence Kelley uses an abundant amount of rhetorical devices in her speech to express her feelings about child labor. Kelley uses sarcasm, repetition, and imagery in her speech to explain her thoughts on child labor.
LaDuke, Winona. All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999. Print.
The speech contained clear and strong similes to help the audience understand the text. He states, "The bullets flew like birds in the air, and whizzled by our ears like the wind through the trees in the winter," making a comparison between weapons and nature. The use of simile here helps the reader infer that bullets were flying across the sky freely and the Indians were in danger. Comparing the two shows that battling with the whites was extremely
Despite many problematic dynamics that perpetuate stereotypes of Native Americans or fail to fully and accurately portray them, the audience is provided with a different insight of the actual history regarding Native Americans and white settlers that invoked violence, as the real savages amongst these tribes who resided
In a passage from his book, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, author John M. Barry makes an attempt use different rhetorical techniques to transmit his purpose. While to most, the Mississippi River is only some brown water in the middle of the state of Mississippi, to author John M. Barry, the lower Mississippi is an extremely complex and turbulent river. John M. Barry builds his ethos, uses elevated diction, several forms of figurative language, and different styles of syntax and sentence structure to communicate his fascination with the Mississippi River to a possible audience of students, teachers, and scientists.
The movement westward during the late 1800’s created new tensions among already strained relations with current Native American inhabitants. Their lands, which were guaranteed to them via treaty with the United States, were now beginning to be intruded upon by the massive influx of people migrating from the east. This intrusion was not taken too kindly, as Native American lands had already been significantly reduced due to previous westward conquest. Growing resentment for the federal government’s Reservation movement could be felt among the native population. One Kiowa chief’s thoughts on this matter summarize the general feeling of the native populace. “All the land south of the Arkansas belongs to the Kiowas and Comanches, and I don’t want to give away any of it” (Edwards, 203). His words, “I don’t want to give away any of it”, seemed to a mantra among the Native Americans, and this thought would resound among them as the mounting tensions reached breaking point.
In Black Hawk's Surrender Speech in 1832, he uses many rhetorical devices to address the ending of Black Hawk. He uses these devices to express his emotions and thoughts of his ending.
The book “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” written by Dee Brown, the author illustrates the dark past of the Native Americans. The issues addressed by the author ensure that the reader gets emotional when analyzing the matters covered in the book. The book narrates the various experiences that Native Americans went through such as killings committed against them by the government. It shows the massacres, humiliating diplomacy, and discriminatory policies used by the white settlers on the Native Indians. A critical analysis of the description based on unexploited sources such as firsthand descriptions and government accounts shows that Dee Brown intended the reader to react emotionally towards the issues addressed in the book. The author intended
In Thomas King’s novel, The Inconvenient Indian, the story of North America’s history is discussed from his original viewpoint and perspective. In his first chapter, “Forgetting Columbus,” he voices his opinion about how he feel towards the way white people have told America’s history and portraying it as an adventurous tale of triumph, strength and freedom. King hunts down the evidence needed to reveal more facts on the controversial relationship between the whites and natives and how it has affected the culture of Americans. Mainly untangling the confusion between the idea of Native Americans being savages and whites constantly reigning in glory. He exposes the truth about how Native Americans were treated and how their actual stories were
Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...
In Tecumseh’s speech, he calls the General to recognize the “white man’s” excessive greed for land. Tecumseh, showing how outrageous to the General the issue of land is, states, “ Sell a country?! Why not sell the air, the sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children” (L.30-31). By using hyperboles to exaggerate the situation, Tecumseh brings forth ignorance of the General and the “white man” towards taking Native land. In the 19th century, the government and the “white man” thought it was okay for them to just encroach on Native land with no consequences. However, by pointing out the obvious objects in nature such as the air and sea, Tecumseh describes the extent to how much the white man wants to take everything, even when it is not necessary. Further, Tecumseh hopes to instill thought into the white man, especially the General, to rethink further actions in taking Native land. On the other hand, Chief Seattle uses casual relationship to get his message across to the President. Describing the effects of the white man’s actions, Seattle states, “The whites, too shall pass- perhaps sooner than the tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in your own waste” (L.35). By using casual relationship, Seattle is able describe and show the effects to “whites”that by abusing the environment and the resources, the white man is also harming his own land. Land was a major asset for the government in the mid-1850s, as it allowed the country to grow, meaning that their will be more to gain money from. Many of the audience thought that taking and abusing the land was the only
This Earth is precious” is a transcription of Chief Seattle’s reply to the president of the United States due to the fact they tried to buy their lands. It is thought that this speech was given in 1845, but in fact, the date, location, and the actual contents of it are unclear and disputed. Chief Seattle was a warrior who tried to defend his people, protecting them, and their culture, “considered barbaric by the Washington government of the white invaders of America.” It is undeniable that Seattle’s letter is completely effective and eloquent, making clear the fact that for them their lands are not only something to own, but to respect. In his writing, Seattle invites the Washington government to think about what they want to do, by using certain literary devices, such as, rhetorical questions, irony, euphemism, hyperbole, etc.
In The Unsettling Argument there was a settler woman and a chief from the tribe Shawnee named Green Jacket. They both wanted the same land for different reasons and had an argument over the land. Green Jacket had very strong feelings about why the settler woman and the other settlers should abandon their land so he and his tribe could have it.