i am doing a rhetorical device project for ap lang and i’m having trouble trying to answer this question:

how does this example from barack obama’s 2004 dnc speech shown to be an effective use of climax (the rhetorical device, not the plot of a story)?

if you need a definition of climax, it is a rhetorical device in which words, phrases, or clauses are arranged in order of increasing importance.

Well, the passage starts out with using words that are increasingly more and more intense. We first begin with the use of the word "solemn", which is relatively peaceful, laid back, and not exactly very provoking. then next we get the phrase "shade the truth" which provokes question in the reader... of implying something isn't completely represented. Then we have a long explanation why, further drawing in the reader into this conflict, discussing the families and the soldiers (emotional element!!) and then it finally hits the climax: to earn the respect, a very hard hitting sentence.

in short, this phrase slowly draws in the reader of the importance of taking care of these nations troops.