Read the passage. excerpt from "what to the slave is the fourth of july? " by frederick douglass the rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. the sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. this fourth [of] july is yours, not mine. you may rejoice, i must mourn. refer to explorations in literature for a complete version of this speech. how does douglass use parallelism in this excerpt? to present compelling evidence for his claim that the fourth of july should not be celebrated as a day of freedom to reinforce his authority and establish his credibility as someone knowledgeable about slavery to provide his listeners with important background information about slavery in america to create contrast by highlighting the differences between his experiences and his audience's experiences

Parallelism is a figure of speech very useful when intending to emphasize and make more memorable a comparison or contrast between two or more ideas and to bring clarity and conciseness to these thoughts.

In the passage, Douglass uses parallelism with that same purpose: he repeats certain parts of speech (The nouns "justice, liberty, prosperity and independence" and the object pronouns "is yours, not mine"), he repeats words ("by you, not by me") and grammar structures ("You may rejoice, I must mourn"), in order to create contrast by highlighting the differences between his experiences and his audience's experiences.

the price of our current war is high; it costs money and it costs lives.

but it does not cost our pride. it does not cost the guilt that would arise from knowing that we did nothing to intervene while our neighboring nations fell to despotic leaders.

it does not cost the terror of knowing that our allies are unstable. it does not cost the fear that we, too, will be next to fall.

which sentence most accurately explains why the speaker's use of the parallel structure is effective in this passage?

a. it underscores that disagreement will not be tolerated and will be dealt with swiftly.

b. it makes the speaker seem like a decisive and capable leader.

c. it emphasizes reasons to fight and inspires listeners to aid the war effort.

d. it establishes the speaker's credibility by acknowledging the difficulties of war.

the correct answer is: d