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Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Georgina Anderson
Berrett
ENG1010
June 28, 16
A Whisper of AIDS
In 1992, Mary Fisher addressed the Republican National Convention with a moving and informative speech. She encouraged the Republican party to tackle the AIDS crisis and overcome
the stigma associated with the disease. Her speech known as A Whisper of AIDS is one of the
Top 100 American Speeches (The New York Times). In her speech, Mary Fisher brings awareness to a disease that is quietly killing millions of people while using all three parts of the rhetorical analysis triangle: pathos, ethos and logos.
In the beginning of her speech, Mary Fisher uses logos, or fact based information, to bring
awareness to her audience about the AIDS epidemic. She informs the Republican National Convention that, Two hundred thousand Americans are dead or dying. A million more are infected.
Worldwide, forty million, sixty million, or a hundred million infections will be counted in the
coming few years. She uses logos to inform her audience of the harsh truth and statistics behind
the current crisis with AIDS. She continues to use logos to strengthen her rhetorical appeal and
informs her audience about the continuing threat of AIDS. She says, The rate of infection is increasing fastest among women and children. Largely unknown a decade ago, AIDS is the third
leading killer of young adult Americans today.
Mary Fisher opens her speech by using her testimony and continues to share her story and
utilize ethos throughout her speech. She tells us that she is a mother of two and that she contracted HIV in her second marriage. While watching her speech online, on the bottom of the screen it

Rhetorical Analysis Essay


says that she is the Founder of the Family Aids Network which further strengthens the ethos in
her speech. If you look closely, she also is wearing a red ribbon on her left shoulder which represents HIV/AIDS awareness.
Although Mary Fisher does a wonderful job at including both ethos and logos in her speech,
she primarily uses pathos. Her speech is filled with passion and emotion. She uses her passion to
help persuade her audience even further. In her speech, Mary Fisher connects with more than just
the people in her audience, she identifies with others that are currently battling AIDS by saying,
Tonight, I represent an AIDS community whose members have been reluctantly drafted from
every segment of American society. Though I am white and a mother, I am one with a black infant struggling with tubes in a Philadelphia hospital. Though I am female and contracted this disease in marriage and enjoy the warm support of my family, I am one with the lonely gay man
sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind of his familys rejection. Her ability to connect
with others battling the same disease while still provoking emotion in her audience is a strong
use of pathos in her speech. Mary Fisher uses pathos in a very beautiful and honest way to bring
awareness to her cause.
Mary Fisher does a wonderful job at incorporating all three rhetorical appeals in her speech
to the Republican National Convention. In the beginning of her speech, she uses ethos and logos
and quickly transitions to pathos. Throughout her speech, she manages to intertwine and flow
from one rhetorical appeal to the next. It is a beautiful speech that uses the art of persuasion to
bring awareness to a disease that has been ignored and she does a wonderful job at encouraging
her audience and others to make a difference.

Rhetorical Analysis Essay


A Whisper of AIDS by Mary Fisher, 1992, Top 100 Speeches,
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/maryfisher1992rnc.html

The New York Times, Defined by Words, Not by a Disease by Dan Shaw, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/fashion/aids-activist-mary-fisher-is-defined-by-wordsnot-disease.html?_r=0

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