Repetition and Parallelism.
The preamble of the Constitution contains
the rhetorical features of repetition and parallelism. The repetition
occurs with the words “United States.” We can see “United States” in the
beginning and at the ending of the preamble (which is actually only one
sentence). Parallelism, as you may know, is when a list/series has all
elements with similar pattern or structure. For instance, if one element
of a series is a phrase that is comprised of a verb and a noun, then,
in order to be considered parallel, all elements will contain a verb and
a noun. Let’s look at one element of the preamble: “establish justice.”
“Establish” is a transitive verb, which requires a direct object
(noun). That said, “justice” is a noun and direct object of the verb
“establish.” What makes the Preamble parallel is that each series/list
item contains a transitive verb and direct object. The purpose of
beginning and ending the Preamble with “United States” is most likely to
stress for what the constitution will stand—The United States of
America. The purpose of the parallelism is most likely to stress that
all series items are tantamount—are or equal importance. As for the
overall purpose of the Preamble, what it does is disclose the reasons
for the creation of the Constitution; it also outlines the exact powers
of the future government and mentions the source of powers—the people of
the United States of America.
