Help from Frederick

Now that this huge paper is coming up all I do when I read is think of other connections back to their rhetoricians, searching for a topic on my paper. The readings of Frederick Douglas really got me on a good start towards actually having something to write about. I have been thinking about morality and what it actually means in oratory.

The story on page 1076 got me thinking and relating back to a lot of different rhetoricians. Douglas describes a scene where he was at an anti-slavery rally and trust on stage to make a speech. “My speech on this occasion is about the only one I ever made, of which I do not remember a single sentence.” (1076) Dopes a speech have to be written down and organized before it comes valid? Could I just go up be given a topic then wow an audience with my speech?

The conventional answer to the question would be yes. The answer is yes if you the speaker has wisdom and over all knowledge. In theory a good orator is always a good rhetorician. To prove this you would have to look at Cicero and his bind to education. This goes back to what I was just saying. If you get thrown into a situation where rhetoric is needed education can bail you out. Aristotle would argue that memory bails you out, which leads back to education.

I believe Frederick challenges the idea of wisdom and education being the importance of a good speech. Of coarse they are unnecessarily needed and if you have them you can successfully communicate trough Rhetoric. Douglas challenges these ideas in his story on page 1076 because he is not very educated at first. Although he did teach himself how to read and write as a slave, his rhetoric comes from his passion and purpose not just education. So after this reading in my paper I want to explore how passion, purpose, and interpretive communities help build the greatest examples of Rhetoric is speeches such as The Kings Speech, speeches by MLK, etc…