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The Rhetorical Analysis Of Ellen Degeneres

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“Find out who you are and be that person. That's what your soul was put on this Earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth and everything else will come.”– Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen DeGeneres is one of America's most well known comedians and also a very prominent gay/lesbian role model for the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community. From 2013 till today, she has been the host of an award winning talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. DeGeneres is also a twelve-time Emmy award winner, an actress, a producer, and an animal rights activist. This rhetoric analysis essay will revolve around her commencement speech given to the graduating class of Tulane University in May 2009. DeGeneres incorporated humor in her speech in order to…show more content…
Graduation day is one of the most important and exciting events in the life of any student. Universities invite politicians, notable honorable citizens, artists or even celebrities to be the keynote speaker. The speaker has the freedom to express himself/herself on his or her own unique way. The Tulane University class of 2009 or “Katrina Class” were honored to have Ellen DeGeneres not only congratulate them, but give them a commencement speech also. They got the name “Katrina Class” for being the survivors of the devastating Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. DeGeneres, known for her captivating personality, addressed a commencement speech that was inspirational, humorous, personal, and appropriate for the situation at the Louisiana Superdome on May 9, 2009. DeGeneres uses humor in most of her speech, but also shares the hardships she went through before her huge success. She does this to inspire and motivate the…show more content…
Through the speech, DeGeneres applied her own motto “stay true to yourself”. From beginning to end of her speech her personality was present at all times and her jokes and puns were implemented perfectly without losing or distracting the audience from the message. DeGeneres, unlike other keynote speakers, was entertaining and didn’t follow the formal structure of a commencement speech. Instead of going inside the lines, she went out of them and made her speech unique and different. She even ended her “common cement” dancing along to one of Lady Gaga’s first singles “Just Dance” as her
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