A Rhetorical Analysis Of Hannah Paquette's Speech

In 2016, Hannah Paquette wrote and delivered a speech that was meant for a convention for women's rights after the passing of the 19th amendment. She did this to not only celebrate the occasion and the potential for the future, but also as a way to call attention to the hardship that women had to endure in the pursuit of suffrage. Throughout the speech, Paquette uses rich emotional appeals to make herself relatable while also including a great depth of information to establish herself as a trustworthy speaker.

In her opening paragraph, Paquette begins with a strong and personal statement to relate to her listeners. She begins by saying “I am proud to be standing among you as a woman who can now cast her vote, and I will never be able forget

this day.” The first important part of this is her usage of the word “I” which makes the statement personal to her. People often shy away from saying matters of emotion like this in such a direct way for fear of the way it might make them seem or how it may be interpreted. Paquette, however, goes chooses the word “I” as a way to strongly tie herself to the emotion she is trying to convey. This also gives a lot of strength to this statement because no one can argue with how she feels. She has started off her speech with what is an undeniable statement of truth, setting the tone for rest of it.
The other important aspect of this statement is that it works directly with her audience's feelings. All of the people at the convention must have been feeling similarly to the sentiment in Paquette’s statement. By doing this, she makes a listener more inclined to believe in what she says.
Her speech is made even better by the richness of information that she uses, and her ability to connect it to her message. Throughout her speech, Paquette makes references to many different women and events which have made an impact on women’s history. Towards the middle of her speech, Paquette talks about some of the transitions that women have made including into the workforce or women’s clubs and away from the home. About those clubs she says that they ”were the first way we could show men how we could improve our community, and that we were more than just someone to clean your house, make your dinner, or look after your kids.” Her usage of the pronoun we works to set herself up as an authority on what she talks about. She puts herself into the information as though she herself was there. However this isn’t the only thing she does here.
Throughout her entire speech, Paquette makes a point of her logical arguments and chains. As can be seen in the last quote, she starts these off by giving information which she then works off of. In the past example, she uses a specific example to make a more generalized statement about what women can do. More interestingly though is that she creates a focus for her listeners in the usage of the word “your” as in “your kids.” The reason that this is important is that she creates a common enemy to stand behind. However, she does an even better job in that she keeps it specific with the specific objects while keeping the person to whom she speaks undefined. This way her statement can fit to almost any person listening.
All of these examples show what Paquette’s true talent is when it comes to speaking. While she is able to skillfully present information, her best ability is really in the way she allows and forces listeners to relate to her words. By doing this, she creates a trustworthy message while still getting her point across.