Rhetorical devices

Repetition

One of the main rhetorical devices used in Ben Okri’s article “ ‘I can’t breathe’: why George Floyd’s words reverberate around the world” is repetition. In particular, the phrase “I can’t breathe” is repeated throughout the entire article: 

Maybe every time the police stop you in your car for no other reason than that you are a black man or woman, you should say: ‘I can’t breathe.’ Maybe every time people cross the road in the evening when they see you, one should hold up a placard that says: ‘I can’t breathe.’ Maybe when jobs are denied you, deserved promotions elude you, or when the police come to deport you, like the Windrush victims, one should record the moment on one’s phone while saying: ‘I can’t breathe’. (ll. 30-35)

Here, Okri argues that “I can’t ...