I Am Malala Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography, I Am Malala, (2015), portrays that youth is defined by the experiences and growth one goes through their life. Yousafzai elucidates this by employing emotional appeals, presenting ethical explanations, and providing logic to justify her fight for everyone’s rights for education. In the beginning she was just another girl born “hidden away behind a curtain,” and was living “simply to prepare food and give birth to children.” As she continues on with her story, Yousafzai matures even at fifteen years old through her experiences and apprises the intended younger audience about how education is a definitive role during one’s youth.

In her biography, Yousafzai’s first sets the stage describing her present life, along with scenarios of how she’s still fighting for education in third-world countries. She strengthens her book by appealing to pathos, which helps build a hook intended for the younger readers. Her work is filled with emotionally-charged phrases that create a sympathetic image for the audience.

I saw many children on the roadside in this hot weather, asking

for work, such as carrying heavy stones, in order to feed their families .I just felt such pain in my heart. What is their sin, what have they done that they’ve had to migrate? Why are these innocent children suffering such hardship? Why are they deprived of school and a peaceful environment? (xix)

The image she evokes is of the hardships and challenges children have to go through in countries like Syria. With the use of words like “heavy” and “deprived” makes readers sympathize with the struggling children who can’t receive an education, probably due to incident, like losing their father being killed.
Adding to her pathos appeals, Yousafzai practices strong appeals to ethos, with different sources and as well build her argument.
We human beings don't realize how great God is. He has given us an extraordinary brain and a sensitive loving heart. He has blessed us with two lips to talk and express our feelings, two eyes which see a world of colors and beauty, two feet which walk on the road of life, two hands to work for us, and two ears to hear the words of love.

Her belief in God is the appeal to ethics concept in this part of her book. She is interpreting that God has given all these wonderful characteristics of the human body that we should be using wisely to educate ourselves, especially as children. As the youth of the world, Malala is stating that these gifts that were given should be used in great ways in becoming wiser and growing through experiences.
Adding to her ethos appeal, Yousafzai provides a strong appeal to logos, using a logical progression of ideas. She points out the one of the many core reasons why children from her home country should be allowed to receive an education to learn more and mature during their youth. She explains, “Islam says every girl and every boy should go to school. In the Quran it is written, God wants us to have knowledge.” The details and the use of a known object, the Quran, builds an appeal that impresses the reader that this is a problem worth discussing.
Malala Yousafzai effectively appeals to the reader to support her main goal of fighting for kids rights for education all around the world. Readers can identify the importance the role of education plays in the life of the youth. Using ways to attract her audience such as using logic, ethics, and phrases to stir the emotions of the younger intended audience.

Argument Essay
“The error of youth is to believe that intelligence is a substitute for experience, while the error of age is to believe experience is a substitute for intelligence.” -Shaw
Shaw is proclaiming that younger generations think that they can live their lives splendidly by simply being smart rather than growing and learning through experience. He also states that older generations think experience from aging is more liable than being intelligent. I concur with Shaw’s point of view in thinking that younger people and older people have a different mind set for whether intelligence or experience is more important than the other. They are both important factors in one’s youth and they can not be substituted for one another.
In Malala Yousafzai’s biography, I Am Malala, she explains in the book how she has learned through the experiences she has been through as well as the education she has received while fighting for all children’s right to go to school.

Yousafzai said, “I told myself, Malala, you have already faced death. This is your second life. Don't be afraid — if you are afraid, you can't move forward.” This exhibits Yousafzai’s mental thinking when it comes to tough situations. She thinks about her past experiences and that is what helps her grow, even is she’s only fifteen.  “Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world,” Yousafzai states. She makes it evident that education seems to be an important factor in a child’s life, and can also affect the world one day. Yousafzai’s whole life story can sustain the

quote.

Long Form Questions
1. Malala Yousafzai was born in 1997 in Mingora Pakistan, in the country of Swat Valley. Her home country was a peaceful place until Taliban, an extremist terrorist group, took control. Yousafzai attended one of the many schools that her father, Ziauddin, founded. Ziauddin was the main person who has shaped Yousafzai into the woman she is now, as well as leading her to the path of fighting for the right for education. When Yousafzai was 11 she gave a speech, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education,” after the Taliban began attacking girl’s schools in Swat.  To further expand her fight for education she began blogging for the BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation, under the pen name of Gul Makai. With a growing public audience, Yousafzai was encouraged and continued to speak her right, and the right of all women and children, to an education. In 2011 she was nominated for the International Peace Prize. In the same year, the government of Pakistan awarded her with the first ever National Youth Peace Prize.
At 14 Malala Yousafzai found out that the Taliban issued a death threat against her, and one October 9, 2012, a man who boarded the same bus as Malala shot her on the left side of her neck which traveled down to her neck. She was flown out to Peshawar and then was transferred to Birmingham, England. After the attack and her recovery, Yousafzai received many awards, gave a speech at the United Nations, and wrote a biography (I Am Malala).
Pettinger, Tejvan (2013). “Biography of Malala “, Oxford, www.biographyonline.net, 12/28/16
2. “One year ago I left my home for school and never returned. I was shot by a Taliban bullet…” (Yousafzai 3) Malala Yousafzai describes in detail the moment she was shot in the prologue, which captures the reader’s attention, making them want to continue reading to learn her story. Her biography is arranged in five different parts along with a prologue, and an epilogue. She begins her memoir by giving the audience the background of her culture and religion. She moves through the story by depicting every crucial moment in her life that has led up to where she is now. She talks about her childhood, explaining how she decided to fight for girls’ education, and how she came more passionate about this cause. As the audience reads on the the parts of the book, they’ll grow more in suspense as Yousafzai becomes a known public figure in Pakistan and then becomes a target for the Taliban.
The first part of the book is titled “Before The Taliban” and consists of eight chapters. In this she talks about her life in Swat and her father. Yousafzai’s care for her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, is conspicuous throughout part one as she has a whole chapter dedicated just for how he grew up. The remaining chapters consist of her life in Swat as well as education. In the end of part one, Yousafzai explains the drastic earthquake that occurred. This negative situation gets followed by part two, which holds a more drastic situation. Part two, “The Valley of Death”, describes the coming of the Taliban with their supposed method of fulfilling their beliefs on how the Quran should be interpreted, “… The Taliban took our music, then our Buddha’s, then our history.” (Yousafzai 123)
Part three, “Three Girls, Three Bullets,” summarizes the total destruction the Taliban caused and talked about how they terrorized schools and anyone who spoke against them. The Taliban sent numerous death threats to Malala and her father and they took it lightly and continued fighting for their cause. Then one day, on the way back home from school, Malala and two girls were shot on the bus by the Taliban. Following up to part four and five talking about the recover of Malala in the hospitals and her life afterwards.
The entire memoir is arranged in chronological order to get a deeper understanding of Malala’s journey in fighting for women’s education. The techniques Malala used to intrigue her audience is by giving detailed descriptions of how her life went. As well as many anecdotes that occurred throughout her life that led up all the way to the moment she was shot. She adds pictures in the memoir as well for the audience to capture the essence of the situation at hand.
3. Malala Yousafzai uses first person point of view considering that it is her biography. This provides us with her thoughts during her experiences during the hard times of Pakistan and for her family. Her first person point of view is critical to how the reader perceives everything. Not only does she tell the audience the story but she describes the experiences as well, which allows the readers to understand what she went through. The terrible moments of her point of view during the time of attack makes the book all the better.
With this first person point of view, she lets the reader know how she feels, how she sees things, handles situations, and comprehend her thoughts. This accumulates and allows the audience to be more engrossed in the book, making them want to continue the story. Her memoir evokes immediacy and veracity, where her private feelings combine with the public, political issues.