Rhetorical Devices in The Raising of the Philippine Flag – Solo by Carlos P. Romulo

Rhetorical devices are often used to make any written or spoken speech more persuasive, more engaging, and more effective. The lack of it may not attract readers or listeners to consider and think about the ideas and concepts presented to them, thus acquiring little integrity to be able to persuade. Insufficient use of rhetorical devices can also make the piece too bland to be engaging, and all the more intriguing. Like spices added to food, they enhance the flavor and give a different type and feeling of eating experience. A sufficient amount of use of these devices allows one to be more effective in conveying the message one wishes to convey in a more persuasive and artistic way.

Several rhetorical devices are found in this essay by Carlos P. Romulo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Filipino journalist and president of the fourth United Nations General Assembly. The rhetorical devices used are not explicitly versed, they are even almost suggested, but they can still be identified despite them and can still generate the impact that makes the essay remarkable despite its simplicity.

Initial sentences already feature anadiplosis, where a word at the end of one sentence in this case is repeated at the beginning of another.

“Suddenly there was a deep silence… a silence that was the prelude to a glorious event.”

This rhetorical device somehow creates a sense of suspense executed in an almost poetic manner. We could only imagine the lines being delivered as a prologue to a multi-year play. This seems to be the feeling that anadiplosis presents in the way the essay is used.

The polysyndeton, or the insertion of conjunctions before each word in a list, is also identified, although it is not used explicitly either.

“Thick masses of cumulus clouds gathered, shifted and mixed in endless succession…”

We sometimes observed small children speaking in a manner identical to the function of said device. This gives the text a somewhat light tone, as it seems childish, and a sense of naivety, as it sounds like it’s being spoken live.

There were also several cases where a sudden break in the grammatical structure of a sentence, or anacoluthon, was used. The way it was presented seems to more vividly present the setting and not a completely different change of mind.

“And the enveloping silence was so thick it was almost audible.”

He tends to put more emphasis on the sentence after the break, doing the job of effectively describing the scene with the use of only a few words.

The next line also has the same rhetorical device, only this time the ‘break in grammatical structure’ presents another device, anaphora, in which one or more words are repeated at the beginning of consecutive phrases, clauses or sentences, and in this case, words.

“At one point, we saw a silver pole, so tall, so shiny, so magnificent.”

The next rhetorical devices encountered were also anaphoras, and this time, they are between sentences, and again, not used explicitly, but identifiable nonetheless. It also features this sense of emotional buildup as the author digs the depths of his sentimentality.

“Below it we fought the epic battles of Bataan and Corregidor. Beneath it we felt that this was not a mere patch of tropical soil…”

The lines of the essay that follows also present an anaphora, although it also suggests an amplification or expansion of details to clarify a point.

“This was a piece of America. This was American Democracy. This was the last outpost of freedom in the Pacific.”

Another anacoluthon piece was featured, and again, it was more like a more defined description of the moment.

“At this point, the two flags get underway: one goes up, the other goes down.”

The anaphora was then used in a paragraph of the essay.

“This was the voice that sustained us through the long and unequal struggle. This was the promise that now found consummated realization and fulfillment. It was worth the stellar courage and the unspeakable sacrifice. It was worth the blood, the sweat, the tears and the treasure that any nation could offer on the altar of immaculate liberty”.

The following rhetorical device breaks the chain of those that were frequently used before, since it now features metanoia, or the qualification of a statement to lower or strengthen its tone, as in this case below (strengthen).

“The guns, the big guns of the Army, began to bark not with accents of defiance but with salutes of applause.”

Those last parts of the line could also pass as an antithesis, or contrast within parallel phrases, as in “…bark not with accents of defiance but with bursts of applause.”

The next line introduces anacoluthon and anadiplosis, and we can also add anaphora to complement that. It could be seen as a combination of these three rhetorical devices.

“And the rain mingled with our tears: tears of joy, of gratitude, and of pride at the crowning achievement.”

The following would be another case of anacoluthon, and it is also like the previous ones, that it describes the defined object to which it points.

“Above us flew for the first time and over this beleaguered land, alone, happy and unruffled amid the raging gales and torrential rain: the flag of the Philippines.”

Finally, the essay ends in a striking epizeuxis, also called a palilology, which is a mere repetition of words, intended to leave a lasting impression on the reader, and also reflects the heightened hopes of the author.

“GOD! May he stay there always, always, always, always.”

The most prominent rhetorical devices present in the essay are the anacoluthon and the anaphora, both presented five times. The main sentiment of the text is about the intense emotion of achieving freedom, and these most prominent rhetorical devices used in some way reflect the emotional state of the author: genuinely grateful, intensely hopeful.