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Black Hawk Surrender Rhetorical Analysis

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In Black Hawk's Surrender Speech in 1832, Black Hawk portrays many forms of being a courageous Indian who faced many obstacles, but was always true to his nation. He portrays this by utilizing rhetorical devices and associating to the reader through pathos. Black Hawk first starts off his speech in a setting of surrender, defeat, and battle. He uses the analogy, "The bullets flew like birds in the air, and whizzed by our ears like the wind through the trees in the winter.", to show how one of the obstacles he had to face was combat. The analogy is comparing bullets to nature, which many Indians considered to be sacred. This shows how strong they are because even though Black Hawk knew that torture was up ahead he was not frightened by death.

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