Rhetorical devices

Rhetorical question

The article “English football is consumed by racism and hatred. Can the cycle be broken?” by Jonathan Liew often uses rhetorical questions to engage the audience and make the receivers reflect on the author’s points. The article’s headline contains a rhetorical question – “Can the cycle be broken?” – which is repeated and expanded later on:

Can the cycle ever be broken? Will football ever be able to move beyond strong statements and outright condemnations and the occasional glimpse of a man walking out of a magistrate’s court with a jacket over his head? (…) Realistically, are we ever going to get the measure of this thing?” (ll. 14-19)

Here, the series of rhetorical questions invite readers to reflect on the difficulty of completely escaping racism and discrimination in football. This repetition also reinforces the main i...