In 1895, Booker T. Washington delivered his “Atlanta Compromise” address. Washington’s speech was very influential and was almost not allowed to be spoken in front of a mainly White audience.
However, it was decided that having a Black speaker would impress the Northerners and prove the South’s racial progress. Washington’s compromise provided the theory of “cast their buckets where they are” for the Blacks. Throughout Washington’s entire address, the use of multiple literary strategies highly influenced the Blacks to stand up for themselves while still remaining inferior to the Whites.
Washington uses an analogy to capture the audience’s attention and express his thoughts. One of the his most brilliant analogies was “A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel….in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.”. Washington tells a story by comparing White men to a distressed vessel and Black men to a friendly vessel.
When the White men are in need of water, the Black men put aside their differences and help the Whites realize that all they need is right where they are. When in a bad situation, rather than returning the ignorant attitude that the Blacks received, Washington wanted them to do all they could to be kind neighbors to the whites while being sure not to challenge their superiority.
The use of this analogy greatly influenced the Blacks to be confident in what they believed in and to not be afraid to express themselves. If the Blacks were going to gain the respect of the Whites, it was going to all respect of them and they intended to get it by hard work and determination.
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Parallelism also played a major role in Washington’s address. He states “Cast down your bucket among these people who have…make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories.”
Washington’s use of parallelism in this statement portrays two different scenarios illustrated in the same way. This allows the Blacks to understand that not only do they need to be patient; but that the Whites have taken advantage of all the ways the Blacks have helped them.
Washington directs his argument towards the Whites by forcing them to understand that the Blacks will always rise to the occasion and responsibly handle the situation presented to them. The use of parallelism in Washington’s address greatly influenced the way Whites viewed the Blacks based upon the amount of work Blacks do for the Whites regardless of how they’ve been treated in the past.
Throughout his entire speech, Washington uses repetition to engrain in the minds of the audience his purpose of speaking.
The repetition of “cast it down” throughout the entire speech continuously reminds the audience that the South is making progress and that change is just around the corner. Without directly stating that the Whites are at fault for the South’s lack of progress, Washington states “…cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.” Washington’s purpose behind this statement was to prove to the world that progress cannot be made when effort is not put forth by everyone.
When everyone puts forth the goal of solving a problem, it can be solved. Washington especially uses this statement to unify the North and South. The North needed to understand that the South was making progress, and with this progress they intended on putting their country back together. After all, America was not meant to be two separate nations but rather one nation solving all of its problems together.
The Atlanta Compromise address is still one of the most influential speeches in the history of the United States and strongly impacted the outcome of America. Booker T. Washington’s use of literary strategies further strengthened his argument allowing him the respect and attention of all of the White audience members. Without using literary elements to express his opinions, Booker T. Washington’s speech would not have had such a strong impact on the Blacks in the South, and even the Northerners.
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Through his speech, he was able to influence the Northerners opinion of Blacks and Whites from the South simply by showing them how much they had progressed. Booker T. Washington’s words will forever remain incredibly touching and will always be remembered for its power and insight due to the use of literary elements.
