Rhetorical Devices and Figurative Language in a Speech
Question 4 • Recovery Content Language Arts 9 - Quarter 2 - 2026/27
Read the excerpt from "Choice: A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” by Alice Walker.If it is true that land does not belong to anyone until they have buried a body in it, then the land of my birthplace belongs to me, dozens of times over. Yet the history of my family, like that of all black Southerners, is a history of dispossession. We loved the land and worked the land, but we never owned it; and even if we bought land, as my great-grandfather did after the Civil War, it was always in danger of being taken away, as his was, during the period following Reconstruction.
Answer
A
By describing her family’s connection to the land, Walker shows that they had a right to claim it as theirs.
B
Walker mentions the Civil War and Reconstruction to show her knowledge of history.
C
Walker discusses the role of her great-grandfather to prove how connected her family is.
D
By discussing the work put into the land, Walker shows why other people wanted to take away the land.
Explanation
Walker describes her family as having lived on and worked the land, and says their dead are buried there. This deep connection supports her claim that the land of her birthplace belongs to her, even though her family was repeatedly denied legal ownership. Choice A best captures that point; the historical references provide context for their dispossession rather than simply showing Walker’s knowledge of history.
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