Juxtaposition In The Gettysburg Address

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On July 1st, 1863 Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union General George C. Meade transformed Gettysburg, Pennsylvania into a battleground for the Civil War,the battle ended July 3rd, 1863. David Wills was charged by Pennsylvania 's Governor Andrew Curtin to clean up after the battle, part of the battlefield was converted into a gravel site for the soldiers. Later on November 2nd, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln received an invitation from Wills to speak at the dedication ceremony for the soldiers who lost their lives. In Gettysburg,Pennsylvania on November 19th, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln gave one of the most famous speeches in this county’s history. The ten sentence famous speech was given one of the bloodiest sites of the Civil …show more content…

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.” His use of anaphora by repeating the words “we”, “nation”,and “dedicate” to give emphasis on unity. Juxtaposition is also used in the last line by comparing the soldiers dying to be able to give the nation 's ability to live on. By choosing the words “final resting place” Lincoln and his audience is literally standing on the soldier 's final resting …show more content…

He is reminding us what is expected of us from that point forward. Repeating the word “people” he wanted his ideas cemented in the heads of his audience. “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the

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