Old Major's Rhetoric

 I have had a long life, I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living.

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• rhetorical question

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

our lives are miserable, laborious, and short... we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• parallel structure

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

No animal in England knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free.

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• parallel structure

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it?

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• rhetorical question

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

This single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep--and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining.

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• rhetorical question

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

It is summed up in a single word--Man. Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• repetition

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

You cows that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year? And what has happened to that milk which should have been breeding up sturdy calves?

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• rhetorical question

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

And you, Clover, where are those four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your old age? Each was sold at a year old--you will never see one of them again.

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• parallel structure

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own. Almost overnight we could become rich and free.

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• parallel structure

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest, that the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the others. It is all lies. Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in the struggle.

• ethos

• logos

• pathos

• rhetorical question

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5