Rhetoric Study

Throughout the novel, Rand emphasized the men who were suppressed by the power of the councils in addition to the unspoken and unthought-of but desperate want of freedom of these men. However, in order to reach the audience, she used rhetorical strategies to connect and relate to the readers. There were many strategies used but the most obvious ones included irony and repetition.

First, she used irony to convince the readers of how uncontrollably councils are using their power over men. For example, in page 25, Rand explained the process of men becoming government officials, a.k.a. the councils. When a brother gets assigned as a “leader”, they he has to go to the home of the leaders where he has to study hard and become candidates in order to be voted by the men and elected by the council. The irony comes in here, it quotes, “be elected…by a free and general vote of all men.” If even any individual thought process is disapproved from the men, how are the votes counted as “free and general”? From how Rand explained the power of the councils over the men, these brothers cannot do anything individually, everything had to be done as one which also means that these votes don’t really represent what the men really want, but only what the council wants. Therefore from the beginning to the end, the councils control everything in the men’s lives.

Another rhetorical device that was used to approach to the audience was a repetition of phrases. For example, in page 61, Equality 7-2521 starts his sentence with the phrase, “For the first time do we” several times. By repeating the words, “first time”, Rand emphasized the change in his life, and the contrast between the old society and the new world. For the first time, Equality 7-2521 cared about his own body, what he looked like, and how strong he was. These things obviously connect to what guys in reality worry about and by mentioning these new changes of Equality 7-2521, Rand directly told the audience that he has officially entered the reality. Overall, through these rhetorical devices of irony and repetition, Rand emphasized how even though the councils suppressed their high-power on the men, Equality 7-2521 was able to find himself in a new world, with a bright future.