Rhetorical Analysis Of Mary Fisher's Speech

Mary Fisher’s speech entitled “A Whisper of Aids,” is an appeal to the emotional and political moods of the Republican National Conference on August 19, 1992. In this speech she talks about her disease, but unlike most people, who become depressed when they learn about contracting the disease, Mary Fisher stands up and fights for everyone who has AIDS as well as bringing the statics of HIV and AIDS to light. Mary Fisher’s speech can be analyzed from three different standpoints: structure, delivery, and appeal.

Florence Kelley delivered a speech to the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1905. Her speech is a plead for improving the existing child labor laws and working conditions. Throughout her speech, Florence Kelley utilizes many rhetorical strategies to convey her message about child labor laws, these strategies include: appeal to logos, parallel structure, and anecdote.

The rhetorical essay has been a tradition in public speaking since Ancient Greece. Meant to persuade an audience to believe an idea or to embrace a way of thinking, public speakers have utilized this technique for centuries to inspire change in those who listen to it. Carrie Chapman Catt's commencement speech to the 1936 graduating class at Sweet Briar College is a speech that exemplifies the key devices and methods of persuasion in rhetoric, as well as inspiring her audience, a girls-only institution of higher learning, to work hard not only to improve their own lives, but to create a world greater than their own for generations to come. Carrie Chapman Catt delivered a highly effective commencement speech using the rhetorical devices logos,

“Two hundred thousand Americans are dead or dying” Two hundred thousand Americans, two hundred thousand brothers, friends, loved ones, all fighting a war; this war is not fought in foreign countries, this war is HIV/AIDS (“American Rhetoric: Mary Fisher”). Sadly, Mary Fisher is one of the many victims that are crushed by the heartbreaking diagnostic of being HIV positive, however, this was her alarm to the severity of the virus. As a result, Fisher dedicated her life to spread awareness of HIV and AIDS. In addition to the jaw-dropping speech, Fisher, has dedicated her whole life to the awareness of AIDS, through her store, biographies, non-profitable organizations, and many more. However, “A Whisper of AIDS” is the first domino in her line of work to break the “shroud of silence” known as AIDS (“American Rhetoric: Mary Fisher”).Fisher spoke from the heart, and as well as the mind in “A Whisper of AIDS”, which effectively touched the hearts of many and did exactly what she hoped it would, turned the whisper of the word AIDS into a shout spoken from numerous to prevent fear in the hearts of many. In order to show the dire importance of awareness of HIV/AIDS, Fisher, Effectively uses heartbreaking pathos, strong logos, and persuasive ethos.

“I am not here to represent Leonidas. His actions speak louder than my words ever could”, although Queen Gorgo believes this to be true, it is evident that her words still make quite the impact. The speech that was chosen for analysis was Queen Gorgo’s request of Sparta’s council to send their forces to the Battle of Thermopylae, from the movie 300. This speech was chosen simply for the fact that I have always enjoyed this movie and that I’ve always admired Queen Gorgo’s character. Although she does not immediately convince the council of sending Sparta’s army, her actions that follow do. Through the use of pathos, metaphors, and an urgent tone, Queen Gorgo is able to make a strong case to the council as to why they should aid King Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae.

Jane Addams’ speech explains her stance of George Washington's legacy as a soldier, statesman, and a Virginia planter. In this speech, Jane Addams references George Washington’s accomplishments in his past, including how things would be if he is to be present today. The most significant uses of rhetorical devices in this speech include hypophora, rhetorical questions, enumeratio, distinctio, and metaphors.

Mary Fisher also wants her immediate audience to change their negative perspective toward the disease. She wants them to let the affected speak about AIDS and HIV and not ignore them. She is claiming that the rest of the nation has made the affected be fearful, with the words, “You are HIV positive, but dare not say it. You have lost loved ones, but you dare not whisper the word AIDS. You weep

Any speech tries to persuade the audience to accomplish the goal of the speaker. There are multiple modes of persuasion. These modes include Logos and Pathos. Logos is the actual evidence and argument whereas pathos is the speakers appeal to the audience’s emotions. In Mary Fisher’s 1992 Republican National Convention Address also known as “A Whisper of AIDS” Fisher speaks to America about the seriousness of HIV and AIDS. Fisher uses both logos and pathos to appeal to the audience. She urges America to take action by using evidence and experiences to promote emotions and certain attitudes to her audience.

In the year 1990, a war between Iraq and Kuwait created numerous problems and hardships for many individuals including those who were not even affiliated with the region. An example of one of these problems is between an American mother, Mary Ewald, and her son Hart Ewald, who had been taken hostage by military forces under the leadership of the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. Mrs. Ewald uses several rhetorical strategies and devices scattered throughout her letter in order to achieve a convincing and thought provoking plead. These strategies include effective and elaborate usage of logos pathos and ethos, and a very professional and intelligent tone.

Thirty years ago, many believed that only gay people contracted the HIV virus, however, such speculation was disregarded once millions of people were infected. Humans were afraid to be infected, thus they stereotyped those who were infected in order to protect themselves, but the reality is that no one was safe from the HIV virus. Mary Fisher was one of few individuals that accepted the cruelty of the virus, but only by accepting what HIV is, she was able to challenge the virus. In order to awaken the society about the reality of AIDS, Mary Fisher’s speech, “A Whisper of AIDS” would send a message of challenge towards the virus and unite the humans to fight against AIDS. By balancing three different persuasive appeals; ethos, logos, and

The rhetorical devices found in the speech that Jane Addams wrote are hypophora, metaphor, conduplicatio, enumeratio, and personification. Each of these devices has a purpose in the passage, with the author combining all of the devices to strengthen her essay.

Florence Kelley was a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women. Throughout her speech to the Philadelphia Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she stresses the importance of changing the working conditions that are in place for children. By using child labor as her baseline, Kelley is able to talk about her main point, which is her suggestion for women’s rights with the help of repetition, strong word choice, and opposition.

Susan B. Anthony inspired to fight for women’s right while camping against alcohol..along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton also an activist, Anthony and Stanton founded the NWSA . Which helped the two women to go around and produced The Revolution, a weekly publication that lobbied for women’s rights.She also went on saying that if women ever wanted to get reaction men had…only thing stopping them,..having voting rights. An american social reformer and women’s right activist who played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement, also a teacher who aggregate and compare about nature. She gave the “Women’s Rights to the Suffrage” giving outside the jail she was going to be held in, she gave this speech in person in 1873 and her audience were mostly white women that want virtues like men. Also men that wanted to put women in their place and friends of her and fellow citizens. Her main points are that women needed power that men had. Growing up in a quaker household she knew that women needed honor as men just like slaves experience getting their freedom. In Women’s right to suffrage Susan B. Anthony uses tone, reparation,and logos which dematices why women should have equal morality and voting abilities as men.

Throughout the course of Mary’s speech, she uses an emotional appeal to get through to her audience. Although Mary uses emotion, it is not always positive emotions. She chooses her words carefully in order to strike fear within the audience. “If you believe you are safe, you are at risk. If you do not see this killer stalking your children, look again.” Fisher compares AIDS to a killer coming for these parents children. A parent instinctively needs to protect their child. She raises the idea that AIDS is a predator hunting their children, and that they are failing to protect them. Mary makes descriptive images to support her emotional appeal. She states that this rampant disease was “littering it's pathway with bodies of the young.” Fisher uses the image of an innocent baby clinging to life in a hospital. She also attempted to instill a feeling of guilt within the audience. “You weep silently. You grieve alone. I have a message for you. It is not you who should feel shame. It is we -- we who tolerate ignorance and practice prejudice, we who have taught you to fear.” Mary first reminds the audience of the loneliness and depression that AIDS sufferers share. Then she's makes the effort to give the audience a guilty feeling. So that they may try and make up for it. Fisher uses fear, sadness, and guilt to support her appeal. Towards the end of her speech, she gains the sympathy of her audience by speaking

On August 18 1992, Mary Fisher delivered the Republican National Convention Address in Houston Texas, and with her speech entitled "A Whisper of AIDS," she entered the record books for one of the top 100 most influential speeches of the 20th century. Mary Fisher was a wife, mother, Republican, and was HIV positive; and her speech brought the realities of the AIDS epidemic directly to the people in the audience. And the people in the audience were those who felt that they were the least likely to contract the disease. However, Mary Fisher's stirring speech demonstrated to everyone that AIDS was not a disease that people of a certain sexual orientation, race, or social status contracted, but a disease that threatened all human beings.