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Connotative Diction In Christopher Reeve's Speech

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Connotative Diction In Christopher Reeve's Speech
During Christopher Reeve?s speech at the Democratic National Convention, he showed great importance through his words on passing the Americans with Disabilities Act. The main words that connected with the audience throughout his speech were family, values, and dreams.
Firstly, the word family shows connotative diction because Reeve sees that all of us in this nation are, metaphorically speaking, brothers and sisters. In paragraph two of his speech he says, ?... if America is really a family, then we have to recognize that many members of our family are hurting.? ?... and if we are really committed to this idea of family, we?ve got to do something about it.? It makes the audience feel sympathetic and caring toward one another. He
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In paragraph twelve and thirteen Reeve states, ?So many of our dreams-- so many dreams at first seem impossible. And then they seem improbable. And then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable? So if we can conquer outer space, we should be able to conquer inner space, too.? Reeve is basically saying that the disabled have dreams of being helped and that it might be a hard task but it can be done. He relates it to space because conquering something that complicated and challenging can?t be as hard as solving an everyday problem with our ?family? members. This word shows an emotion of hope toward the audience because it lets them believe that we can overcome americans with disabilities. To conclude, Christopher Reeve shows connotative diction toward his audience with repetitive words such as family, value, and dreams. He achieves his purpose of convincing the audience of the importance of passing the Americans with Disabilities Act because it can help our ?family? members to show that each one of them have value and that their dreams won?t be dreams anymore. They won?t be dreams anymore if we help conquer this

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