Angel Fang
Mr. Hayes
English Composition
21 November 2024
In-class Rhetorical Analysis
Madeleine Albright, a reputable American diplomat and political scientist, delivered a graduation speech to students in a women’s college. Albright uses juxtaposition of the choices to keep the status quo and the choices to make a change in order to encourage students to stand up and fight for women's rights. In the beginning of the speech, She uses an example of economy to illustrate the importance of hardworking and making changes. She states that when people built a growing world economy, “[they] could stop there. Instead, [people] are pursuing a broader prosperity, in which those entrapped by poverty and discrimination are empowered to share.” She smartly uses the positive impact that making changes can bring than remaining the same way on economy, which makes the audience believe that making changes is better than improving nothing. Right after the example of economy, she gives two choices about gender roles in society. One is “[lowering women’s] voices and — as some suggest— [sitting] sedately down”. On the other hand, she gives a more bright choice which is “ standing up, spreading the word that [women] are ready to claim [their] rightful places as full citizens and full participants in every society on Earth”. The choice of the word “sedately” and “rightful” makes the audience tend to choose the side where the brighter word is through pathos. Albright makes her words more convincing since the audience believes that they are on the same side with their same identity. The timing she chose to introduce the gender role issue to the audience is perfect. Using the example of economy, Albright makes the audience believe that making changes is better than remaining the same. Therefore, the audience is inclined to believe that making changes is better than remaining the same gender roles right after she illustrates the example of economy.