28 pages • 56 minutes read
The Talented Tenth
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Literary Devices
Rhetorical Question
A rhetorical question is a literary device in which a statement is expressed in the form of a question. Du Bois often uses rhetorical questions to heighten tension, introduce a topic through question and answer, and enhance his arguments with irony. For example, he states, “Was there ever a nation on God’s fair earth civilized from the bottom upward? Never” (45). The question heightens the force of the statement, which is that leadership has never bubbled up from the bottom. In another example, he writes, “Who guides and determines the education which he receives in his world?” In the context of the essay’s argument, the answer is clear: teachers.
Repetition
Repetition of words or phrases emphasizes a concept and seeks to make it memorable for the reader. The most striking use of repetition in this essay is the repetition of the first sentence at the end of the essay, word for word except for one word. The first sentence is: “The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men” (33). The final sentence is: “The Negro race, like all other races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men” (74-75). The repetition of this thesis sentence drives home Du Bois’s belief that exceptional men will save African American society.
Allusion
Allusion is a literary device in which one text mentions another text or author. The difference between an allusion and a reference is that allusions are typically short, and they mention texts with which the reader is presumed to be familiar. “The Talented Tenth” is full of allusions to people and places. Throughout the essay, Du Bois mentions many names, sometimes only briefly. In a passage examining the African Americans who participated in abolition, Du Bois writes: “There was Purvis and Remond, Pennington and Highland Garnett, Sojourner Truth and Alexander Crummel, and above all Frederick Douglass—what would the abolition movement have been without them?” (40). In this example, Du Bois uses both allusions and a rhetorical question.
Persuasive Essay
A persuasive essay, as the name indicates, is written to persuade others with the essay’s point of view. Persuasive essays use a combination of rhetorical devices (typically centered on logical argumentation) to convince the reader of a thesis or a way of looking at an issue. From first to last “The Talented Tenth” argues that a college-educated elite is necessary for the improvement of African American social reality and that educational resources should be directed toward this effort rather than toward vocational education. The polemical and persuasive character of the essay is especially demonstrated when Du Bois references, either indirectly or directly, Washington, the most powerful and influential advocate of trade and industrial education. He writes, “And yet one of the effects of Mr. Washington’s propaganda has been to throw doubt upon the expediency of such training [that is, college education] for Negroes” (74).
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