The Talented Tenth

A rhetorical question is a literary device in which a statement is expressed in the form of a question. Du Bois often uses rhetorical questions to heighten tension, introduce a topic through question and answer, and enhance his arguments with irony. For example, he states, “Was there ever a nation on God’s fair earth civilized from the bottom upward? Never” (45). The question heightens the force of the statement, which is that leadership has never bubbled up from the bottom. In another example, he writes, “Who guides and determines the education which he receives in his world?” In the context of the essay’s argument, the answer is clear: teachers.

Repetition of words or phrases emphasizes a concept and seeks to make it memorable for the reader. The most striking use of repetition in this essay is the repetition of the first sentence at the end of the essay, word for word except for one word. The first sentence is: “The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men” (33). The final sentence is: “The Negro race, like all other races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men” (74-75).