Rhetorical Device

Question

What is the rhetorical device when you capitalize a word when they don't have to be capitalized?

For instance, the quote: "It is summed up in a single word — Man. Man is the only real enemy we have." (from Animal Farm)

In this case, the word "Man" is capitalized when grammatically, it shouldn't.

Answer 1

There are probably various reasons why an author would capitalize a word that otherwise wouldn't be capitalized. Here, I believe it's to illustrate the speaker's perspective of "man."

One usually capitalizes proper nouns, names of an specific person or institution. In other words, a single entity. By capitalizing "Man" like a proper noun, it shows that the speaker does not regard man (i.e., all the humans of the world) to be a diverse group of people with varying allegiances and ideologies, but rather a single, homogeneous being. And a single, homogeneous being is much easier to define and regard as one's enemy.

Answer 2

Capitalizing Man in this situation suggests that the speaker is talking about all people. Making "man" a proper noun gives it more value and thus more power in the context it's being used. The author is using "creative license" to imply that "Man" (all people) are dangerous. The reader must think about why the author chose to do this (which you are doing, so it worked) and question what is intended by the departure from norm.