Questions

1. How would you describe the tone of the speech? Use a two-word phrase, an adjective-noun combination (“angry sarcasm,” for example), or a combination of adjectives (such as “melancholy and wistful”) to do so.

   Question

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   Questions: - How would you describe the tone of the speech? Use a two-word phrase, an adjective-noun combination (“angry sarcasm,” for example), or a combination of adjectives (such as “melancholy and wistful”) to do so.
2. When Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, the audience was surprised by how short the speech was: a mere 272 words. What is the rhetorical effect of such brevity?

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   Questions: - When Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, the audience was surprised by how short the speech was: a mere 272 words. What is the rhetorical effect of such brevity?
3. How does Lincoln use diction about life and death in this speech? What is the effect?

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   Questions: - How does Lincoln use diction about life and death in this speech? What is the effect?
4. Considering the immense importance of this speech, note how ironic it is that Lincoln said, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here” (par. 3). Why do you think this speech has endured? Explain.

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   Questions: - Considering the immense importance of this speech, note how ironic it is that Lincoln said, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here” (par. 3). Why do you think this speech has endured? Explain.
5. Note the word perish in the final sentence of the speech. How do its connotations differ from die, for example, or fade or pass away?

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   Questions: - Note the word perish in the final sentence of the speech. How do its connotations differ from die, for example, or fade or pass away?
6. In such a short speech, the final sentence is notable for its length (82 words) and complexity. What is the rhetorical effect of concluding the speech with such a sentence?

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   Questions: - In such a short speech, the final sentence is notable for its length (82 words) and complexity. What is the rhetorical effect of concluding the speech with such a sentence?
7. In his 1992 book, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America, historian Garry Wills writes:

   The Gettysburg Address has become an authoritative expression of the American spirit—as authoritative as the Declaration [of Independence] itself, and perhaps even more influential, since it determines how we read the Declaration. For most people now, the Declaration means what Lincoln told us it means, as a way of correcting the Constitution itself without overthrowing it. It is this correction of the spirit, this intellectual revolution, that makes attempts to go back beyond Lincoln to some earlier version so feckless… . By accepting the Gettysburg Address, its concept of a single people dedicated to a proposition, we have been changed. Because of it, we live in a different America.

   How accurately does Wills characterize the importance of the Gettysburg Address? Based on the text itself, and your knowledge of American history, how would you evaluate Wills’s claims?

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   Questions: - In his 1992 book, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America, historian Garry Wills writes:The Gettysburg Address has become an authoritative expression of the American spirit—as authoritative as the Declaration [of Independence] itself, and perhaps even more influential, since it determines how we read the Declaration. For most people now, the Declaration means what Lincoln told us it means, as a way of correcting the Constitution itself without overthrowing it. It is this correction of the spirit, this intellectual revolution, that makes attempts to go back beyond Lincoln to some earlier version so feckless… . By accepting the Gettysburg Address, its concept of a single people dedicated to a proposition, we have been changed. Because of it, we live in a different America.How accurately does Wills characterize the importance of the Gettysburg Address? Based on the text itself, and your knowledge of American history, how would you evaluate Wills’s claims?