Patrick Henry

This passage starts with alliteration. "...it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions..." The alliteration helps us remember that we are only human and "indulge in illusions". At the end of this sentence Henry uses the word hope. Because of the alliteration in the sentence, the word hope really sticks out to the reader, or listener. The next two sentences Henry uses rhetorical questions. These questions are also posed as parallel structure. They both start out with clauses, then a comma, then they finish with another clause. This is meant to inhance the rhetorical questions. The questions will make the listener think, and by adding parallel structure it makes you think even more. It makes us think even more because it links the two questions closer and in turn makes us compare the answers together. This is a very smart tactic in a persuasive speech. The first sentence and the last sentence in my passage also share a parallel structure. They both start out with a subject of sorts, and then finish with a statement of truth. This, like the questions, has our minds compare the two statements.