Throughout history many people have been afraid of catching AIDS (Acquiring Immune Deficiency Syndrome). Many people used to, and some still do, think that being around anyone who has AIDS could catch AIDS themselves. People have been and will probably always be ignorant when it comes to AIDS. One of the few people who have AIDS addressed the nation, her name was Mary Fisher. In 1992 she gave a speech titled “A Whisper of AIDS” to bring awareness about it to the nation.
When things in this world happen. We don’t think “this is going to happen to me”, but sometimes these event appear in our life without warning. Mary Fisher, a women who has had such a thing happen in her life. Mary Fisher, she is a Republican speaking at the Republican National
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Convention in Houston, Texas, 1992. This is a women eager to spread the knowledge about AIDS. In Mary Fisher’s “A Whisper of AIDS,” speech she is calling for “the shroud of silence” about HIV and AIDS to be lifted. She is asking “to bring our silence to an end” (Fisher). Mary Fisher is a mother who became HIV positive through marriage. Mary is trying to bring awareness to this disease. Mary wants to inform us that AIDS is not a distant threat but a present danger (Fisher). This speech was effective in the sense that it did bring awareness, and opened the eyes of many. It opened up the doors to discuss a giant problem that many might have not dared talk about. It was effective in the sense that many silently could relate to Mary Fisher’s story. Now that Mary was brave enough to speak out about HIV/AIDS it opened the doors to let others come out as well and tell their stories and experiences. In Mary Fishers speech “A Whisper of Aids” she is trying to bring to light a hidden epidemic. The epidemic is killing many people a year, and not many people are speaking out about it. Mary comes out in this speech to say that “We may take refuge in our stereotypes, but we cannot hide there long” (Fisher). HIV/AIDS is now a widely known disease. Mary wanted to let people know that it was okay if they had HIV/AIDS, they should come out and talk about it. Mary wanted people to be comfortable enough to take a stand with her and bring awareness to the world. Fisher wants to make everyone aware that this particular disease travels. Fisher states “we have killed each other, with our ignorance, our prejudice, and our silence” (Fisher). What she means by this, is that by no one talking about his problem people are dying because no one is willing to speak out. She is getting the audience to open their minds to the possibility that HIV/AIDS is bigger than what they thinking. Mary want the audience to open their eyes to see what is around them, that they might have not noticed before. Fisher states “HIV asks only one thing of those that it attacks, “are you human?””. Mary Fisher was trying to convince everyone to educate themselves about HIV/AIDS.
She got the audience’s attention when she compared herself to others who did not have the same reaction that she had with her family. She talks about her infant in a hospital, and also a “man standing in the cold who has been rejected by his family” (Fisher). Fisher gained most of her audience when she compared herself those not fortunate to be loved by their family’s no matter what. Those of the audience that were there in person, they got the full effect of her speech. They saw the emotion on her face and also their body language. Those of the audience that listened from the radio or the television or the newspaper, understood what she was saying but probably did not get the full effect …show more content…
(Fisher). The audience for which this speech is intended for is the all the public and the people who are infected with AIDS or HIV. As Mary spoke “It does not ask whether you are black or white, male or female, gay or straight, young or old”. Mary is talking to everyone and anyone who will pay attention and listen. The logic used by Mary Fisher here speaks loud and clear about the issue at hand which is AIDS and HIV.
AIDS is not just a problem affecting certain groups of people. Mary calls for us to recognize that “AIDS virus is not a political creature”. Mary informs us that the reality of AIDS is brutally clear. Mary states that there are millions of people infected and hundreds of thousands are dead or dying. Logically we see that there is a tremendous problem at our door. We think that only “certain” people can catch disease but here Mary opened our eyes to the reality of the fact that it really doesn’t matter who you are “we are all at risk.” Mary Fisher is an example of how sometimes thing can happen that are out of our control. She contracted the disease through marriage. She didn’t ask for this. Logically “she didn’t ask to be HIV positive.” Mary also makes it a point to say that this disease “is not a distant threat. It is a present
danger. In this speech we find fear, guilt, sympathy, compassion. First Mary uses fear by giving the true numbers of the many American’s being affected by AIDS and HIV. How many are “dead or dying”. When real numbers are brought to light it makes an impact on the information being presents. It somehow makes the problem more real more believable. Mary states that the reality of AIDS is brutally clear. Many may not give a second thought to things that are not affecting them directly. Whomever heard or saw Mary Fisher speak knew how she contracted HIV, she contracted it from her second husband, but she never put the blame on him. Mary Fisher’s ethos is the she has had HIV herself and is an activist for people with AIDS and HIV, she is also a mother. She also established credibility with who ever heard her my saying “I want your attentions, not your applause” (Fisher). That tells the audience that she does not want the fame, she just wants to he heard. She was standing up for those that could not. Mary Fisher wanted to be heard, and she was heard. She did not want HIV or AIDS to be a whisper, she wanted people to be educated. ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ ¬¬¬Throughout her speech, Mary used a balance of appeals. She used some more than others in her speech. Mary had exact numbers (Logos) throughout her speech about those that are affected by HIV and AIDS and the number of those that die a year because of HIV/AIDS. She uses pathos by comparing herself to others that have HIV/AIDS but are less fortunate then she is. She used Ethos by having HIV/AIDS herself and standing up for those that could not. Mary Fisher fought for what she believed in. She did not speak out of thin air, she knew first hand because she go HIV from her marriage. “Ms. Fisher, now 64, started her improbable career as an advocate at a time when AIDS represented an unequivocal death sentence. As a pretty blonde from a socially prominent Republican family from Michigan, she was a new face of AIDS, beseeching “family values” conservatives to demonstrate compassion” (Shaw 2012). She wants people to be educated on HIV/AIDS. Many would believe that she used ethos the most throughout her speech, because of the fact that she knew firsthand what she was talking about. She is also a mother so she also is speaking to parents and letting them know how their children might feel on some level. Mary Fisher got her audience’s attention from the moment she started speaking. She was able to talk about experiences that people without HIV or AIDS could not talk about. She also got the attention at the end of her speech when she made the pledge to her children. Many would believe that it caught the attentions of all the mothers listening or watching or maybe even reading her speech (Fisher). Mary was trying to bring awareness to this disease. She wants to inform everyone that HIV/AIDS is not a distant threat but a present danger. (Fisher) She knew this was not going to change overnight, but she still stuck with it bringing many out of their discomfort of sheltered shells.
Margaret Sanger, a well known feminist and women's reproductive right activist in USA history wrote the famous speech: The Children's Era. This speech focuses on the topic of women's reproductive freedom. Sanger uses rhetorical forms of communication to persuade and modify the perspectives of the audience through the use of analogy and pathos. She uses reason, thought and emotion to lead her speech.
In, “The Speech of Miss Polly Baker” written by Benjamin Franklin (one of the Founding Fathers) in 1747, brought up the disparities that were between men and women within the judicial system. Also, “The Speech of Miss Polly Baker” also briefly points out, how religion has been intertwined with politics. All throughout “The Speech of Miss Polly Baker,” Benjamin Franklin uses very intense diction and syntax to help support what he is trying to express to the rest of society. Also writing this speech in the view point of a women, greatly helps establish what he is trying to say. If Benjamin Franklin was to write it as a man, the speech my have not had the same passionate effect as it currently has.
Poor, young children being forced to work nearly 24 hours day is a terrible evil that is no longer necessary in the 21st century, thanks to those willing to fight against it. One of those people was lover of freedom Florence Kelley. At the National American Woman Association on July 22, 1905, she gave a speech urging the women to ally with “workingmen”, ln 89, to vote against unfair child labor laws. In her speech, Kelley uses appeals to empathy, sympathy, logic, ethos, repetition, word choice, tone, and current events to defend her case.
Samir Boussarhane During the early 20th century in the U.S, most children of the lower and middle class were workers. These children worked long, dangerous shifts that even an adult would find tiresome. On July 22, 1905, at a convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia, Florence Kelley gave a famous speech regarding the extraneous child labor of the time. Kelley’s argument was to add laws to help the workers or abolish the practice completely.
Florence Kelley appeals to the masses that the conscription of unregulated child labor is abhorring through the use of ethos, juxtaposition, and pathos. Kelley’s speech tackles on one of her main goals in life, regulations on child labor. Her speech moved the masses to fight for the rights of children, and she won. Kelley is responsible for the safe working conditions and the child labor laws that the United States has in implementation today.
On August 20th, 1992 Mary Fisher addressed the Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas in what is now one of the most famous speeches given in recent American history. Fisher, the daughter of a wealthy Republican, spoke on the importance being aware of the increasing danger of HIV/AIDS. Speaking from experience, Fisher is able talk about the danger of ignorance from the disease. She deploys metaphors and allusions pertaining to the Holocaust, as well as hypothetical experiences, to address a complacent, if not oppositional, Republican crowd. Fisher attempts to convince her political listeners of the very real danger that comes with ignoring HIV/AIDS. Fisher deploys a combination of the three appeals of logos, ethos and pathos to strengthen her speech as a persuasive argument. She expands upon her discussion by using metaphor throughout as an effective
During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the fight for equal and just treatment for both women and children was one of the most historically prominent movements in America. Courageous women everywhere fought, protested and petitioned with the hope that they would achieve equal rights and better treatment for all, especially children. One of these women is known as Florence Kelley. On July 22, 1905, Kelley made her mark on the nation when she delivered a speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association, raising awareness of the cruel truth of the severity behind child labor through the use of repetition, imagery and oxymorons.
Florence Kelley was a social and political reformer that fought for woman’s suffrage and child labor laws. Her speech to the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association initiated a call to action for the reform of child labor laws. She explains how young children worked long and exhausting hours during the night and how despicable these work conditions were. Kelley’s use of ethos, logos, pathos, and repetition helps her establish her argument for the reform of the child labor laws.
He uses the limited omniscient to give am intimacy in what Mary’s thinking and also the restriction of not knowing the other character’s actions until they are revealed at the end of the story but he balances this with providing context to her thoughts with the dramatic point of view. Usually, a person’s thoughts don’t need to provide ourselves with context for our own experiences, so Berry uses dramatic point of view to provide what would be missing from exclusively Mary’s thoughts. Berry uses the point of view illuminate Mary’s experience with belonging and the differences between the community of her birth and her new community. Her family had rejected her, “her parents told her. She no longer belonged to that family. To them it would be as if she had never lived” (67). That is enough to damage anyone’s sense of belonging and even though her new community welcomes, includes, teaches, and loves her like the family she lost, perhaps in her sickness a deeply buried insecurity of not belonging rears its head. Because her family didn’t accept her, Mary worries that her new community won’t accept her when she is at her worst, sick and insecure. But when she wakes she realizes that Elton had noticed, cared, and worried for her and in her sleep, her neighbor had come to her and cared for her. “It was a different world, a new world to her, that
In the era of American slavery, the rights of the colored were denied under authoritative rules, such as the Fugitive Slave Act that required the retrieval of all runaway slaves. It was during this time, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, an African American living in Canada, felt the need to combat racial injustice by voicing her opinions on the newspaper Provincial Freeman. In her second issue of the newspaper, she argued the need to continue her editorials is to promote the antislavery cause by embedding repetition to unify her targeted audience and by approaching her audience with a cautious tone to build on more support.
On September 5, 1995 Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a speech to the United Nations 4th World Conference during a Women Plenary Session, located in Beijing, China. Clinton spoke about how women around the world were not treated equally, how women rights should be equal to human rights, and the ghastly abuse and discrimination women faced around the world. The reason for the conference was to strengthen women, families, and societies in order to empower women to taking control of their lives and not be subject to such discrimination. She emphasized how education, health care, jobs, and political rights were not equal between genders and that the world needed to change. Clinton gave a very convincing speech because of her use of rhetorical techniques. The use of pathos, ethos, logos, and anaphora created a powerful, persuasive argument against the way women were treated around the world. Clintons main goal of this speech was to appeal to the audience and convince them that this is unequal treatment is an immense matter and needs to be addressed all over the world.
Even after the disease and its modes of transmission had been correctly identified, fear and ignorance remained widespread. In the mid 1980s, “AIDS hysteria” became a well known term in the media and public life. For example, a magazine published details about how extensive AIDS/HIV related discrimination became. “Anxiety over AIDS in some parts of the U.S. is verging on hysteria,” the authors wrote; they later published this disturbing example:
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS weakens the immune system hampering the body’s defense mechanisms. AIDS is known to be a deadly disease, especially if it is not treated in a timely manner. AIDS and HIV is an epidemic that is increasing among the African American population with roots tracing back to Africa, AIDS and HIV needs greater exposure and more awareness within the African American community and in the homosexual community.
Overall, Mary Fischer’s rhetorical techniques proved to be effective towards many, myself included. Mary established credibility throughout her speech by using her relationship with the President of the United States and the First family to impress her audience to boast her message of acceptance, empathy and awareness. She delivered sound logic with her statistics on the disease and her passionate and emotional pleas helped to draw the audience in and made her speech extremely relatable to many.
During the time when the general public believes the only way to contract HIV/AIDS is to be homosexual, an addict, or prostitute, Fisher being a white, heterosexual, married mother of two from an upper-class family who contracted the virus from her husband is herself the certifying ethos of this speech (1). She tactfully uses her own circumstances and diagnosis to embody the plight of all in the AIDS community and shows that no one is exempt from this deadly disease. She emphatically states that HIV does not care about race, age, gender, sexual orientation, or political affiliation; all that it asks is “Are you human?” (2). She ceases to be the exception and gains the attention and respect of the American people when she aligns herself with others with HIV/AIDS with her statement: