Module B Speeches

Use to Start the Introduction or Conclusion

The late 19th Century poet Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed the effects of
the most prominent speeches in my memory in one succinct sentence,
Speech is power: speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel

Anwar Sadat - Speech to the Israeli Knesset

Context, Occasion and Audience

Delivered to the Israeli Knesset (Israeli Parliament) on the 20 th of

November 1977
Immediate audience were the Israeli government, although speech was
also broadcast throughout the world

Purposes and Exigencies

A time of massive disadvantage in Egypt

Similar, yet slightly less severe, in Israel
A solution to break the conflict between the 2 countries was required, with
risk of further conflict if not resolved
Use the past as a lesson for the present
Adjust the level of peace between Egypt and Israel for the future

Values

Justice and equality based on fairness

Reconciliation
Prejudice
Harmony religious
Empathy, hope and honesty

Quotes and Significant Techniques

Muslims, Christians, Jews

o Reference to religion as a method of uniting them, an appeal to
pathos
Extended metaphor of peace based on justice
o Ironically contrasts devastation of war waged 4 years earlier
o Sadat wants permanent peace peace treaty was signed 7 years
after speech was delivered
Conflict, hatred and slaughter
o Tricolon - emotive language appeals to logos and pathos of the
Knesset
How can we achieve permanent peace based on justice?
o Rhetorical question continues to raise theme of the speech
Psychological barrier of suspicion, rejection (and) fear
o Cumulation adds intensity to the issue
Repetition of Edge of a horrifying abyss
o Emotive language appeals to logos
Repeated phrases like us, we, our

Puts himself on the same level as the audience through the

inclusive language
The farthest corner of the world
o Hyperbole gone through massive lengths to deliver message of
unity
We were a nation reduced to a motionless corpse
o Treatment of Israel in past was ill, acknowledgement creates
credibility, ethos
o

Reception

Ami Isseroff Sadats visit and speech gave Israelis confidence that the
peace offer was genuine
o Gives evidence the speech has persuaded the people
o His genuine offer has a better chance of acceptance
Maintains its relevance to the conflict and the struggle for peace that
exists in the Middle East today

Doris Lessing On Not Winning the Nobel Prize

Context, Occasion and Audience

Delivered at the Nobel Lectures by her publisher, 7 th of December 2007

after being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
Immediate audience was the body responsible for selecting NP winners
(Swedish Academy)
Highlights the ideas of having two homes (London and Zimbabwe) as her
own context

Purposes and Exigencies

To draw attention to attention to global inequality and opportunity

To explore changing attitudes to story-telling and literature
Passionate, life-giving force of literature
To shake people out of jaded views and indifference
Engage in the collective view of humanity

Values

Poverty
Equality and inequality
Education as a right
Past sheds light on the present

Quotes and Significant Techniques

Personal context played a major part in the speech raised in and moved
from Persia to London in 1949 with youngest son
o belong(s) to an organisation and getting books into the villages
Reference to Animal Farm - popular simply because it happens to be
there
o Value laden connotations class tyranny and class structures even
in supposed equality - Zimbabwe did not get the government they
deserved reflects the themes of Animal Farm

Comparison of Zimbabwes governance with fiction of

totalitarianism in Animal Farm
I was there some days
o First person narrative voice adds a sense of authority and appeals to
ethos of the audience, reinforces the message
Hunger for books
o Refers to in the same manner as natural resources
Juxtaposes irony of those in 1st world who dont use things available
o We do not understand the notion of not having these things
accessible
Excessive repetition of books throughout the whole speech
o Emphasises the gravity of the situation
No atlas or globe or biros
o Cumulation emphasises the lack of any educational resources and
the extent poverty
Extended metaphor of women in the Indian store
o It hurts and So painfully thirsty
Emotive language appeal to pathos
o Why is perhaps a third of Anna Karenina here on this counter in a
remote Indian store?
Rhetorical question highlights sadness of dichotomy that
exists between first and third world countries
I would like you to imagine yourselves
o Directly addresses the audience with a call to action
o

Speech Structure

Starts in first person perspective

Story-telling through personal experiences
Ending calls those in more privileged questions to liberate themselves

Reception

Margaret Atwood (Lessings) upbringing gave her an insight into the

viewpoints and plights of people unlike herself
o Work in with Lessings personal context

Geraldine Brooks A Home in Fiction

Context, Occasion and Audience

Delivered to the Boyer Lectures, broadcast on the 11 th of December, 2011

Heard throughout Australia on radio by members of the general public
Specifically lovers of fiction and those who seek to be familiar with recent
intellectual/academic ideas

Purposes and Exigencies

To highlight the role of fiction writers in contributing to society

Reflect on life in journalism and fiction
How she goes through creative writing process

Values

Education
Equality
Value and power of literature
How to

Significant Quotes and Themes

I acquired some useful and durable tools from it

o Develops ethos through the inclusion of personal experiences that
seemed irrelevant at the time
I swim in a sea of words swim so far, dive so deep
o She is comfortable in language, extended motif accentuates the
significance of words (specifically fiction) in her life, hyperbole
shows the extent of the greater world of knowledge she lives in
Recurring motif of the doors Unexpected doors opened for me
o A common motif in art and literature, hence employed here
o Autobiographical tone develops ethos, describes her influences and
opportunities that language offered her
I believe fiction matters. I know it has power
o Anaphora of I know reiterates purpose and exigencies, truncated
sentences are concise and hence promote logos
You try it, you jam it in, you come back you cannot bear to look at it
o Extended metaphor comparing writing to a process of construction
o Places listeners in the process through use of second person
language, using anaphora to perpetuate this notion
I think of that mathematician and her search for a more perfect
description of the worlds swoops and curves
o Reiterating this reference from the start of the speech alludes to the
cycle and process of creating fiction
o Juxtaposes the world of mathematics with the world of literature,
comments on the definite nature of maths and the boundless
possibilities in fiction

Reception

Mr Newman As an expatriate, with strong ties to Australia, her

reflections on the meaning of home will provide the voice of Australian
experience and the eyes of a global citizen.

Margaret Atwood - Spotty Handed Villainesses

Context, Occasion and Audience

Delivered on various occasions in 1994

Throughout Canada and possibly America
Previously a feminist campaigner, however doesnt described herself as a
feminist author

Purposes and Exigencies

Art shapes life

Gender equality is a crucial modern day issue must be reflected in the

world of literature
Representations of females in texts
Literature should reflect the diversity of life and its moral complexity

Values

Equality
Oppression
Value of the arts
Teaching and education

Structure

Introduction of title and subtitle of speech

Personal anecdote of her daughters to define what literature is not
Describes what a novel is
Notion of women in literature
References towards other examples of literature to highlight intentions
and ideas

Significant Quotes and Themes

Create a flawless character and you create an insufferable one; which

may be why I am so interested in spots Lady Macbeth was spotted,
Ophelia was not
o Intertextuality allows the audience to reflect on stories that possess
wicked women and the flaws which represent their evil nature,
allowing success of the story
And there you have it, the difference between literature and life.
Something has to happen
o Literature vs. Life unreality presented in literature, such as women
constantly as the villains
o High modality, inclusive language encouraging the audience to take
action
Or to put it another way, God started with chaos dark, without form or
void and so does the novelist
o Religious allusion compares the process of writing to Gods creation
of the world, hyperbolising the time and effort that goes into it
Hadnt men been giving women a bad reputation for centuries?
o Rhetorical question attempting to persuade audience to move away
from the preconceived perceptions of women and villainous
But bad female characters can also act as keys to doors we need to open,
and as mirrors in which we can see more than just a pretty face
o Extended metaphor of the keys and doors, commonly used in
literature, symbolises opportunity
o Inclusive language delivers a specific image to women, as she sees
them as multifaceted
I will leave you with a final quotation, Ladies of Great Britain, we have
not enough evil in us

Conclusive quotation suggests that while women are multifaceted,

they are not living up to their potential, inclusive language suggests
that collectively women are a united force

Reception

Theme transcends time as we see discrimination in many aspects of life

still valued today
Attacked for selling out on the cause
Feminist critics found her condemnation of the restrictive nature of the
Womens Movement as an unfair depiction of the situation

Noel Pearson An Australian History

Context, Occasion and Audience

Delivered to the Chancellors Club Dinner at the University of Western

Sydney on the 20th of November, 1996
Broadcast to wider Australian community

Purposes and Exigencies

Call for a full and frank account of Australias history

Attribution of guilt is counterproductive
Chastises those in positions of power

Values

National identity
Reconciliation
Honest acknowledgement
Empathy
Unity
Equality

Significant Quotes and Themes

Perpetual seminar for elite opinion about our national identity

o Quoting the Prime Minister to appeal to logos
Aborigines must stop being victims and get over it
o Colloquial language showing lack of respect by wider Australian
public
You have taken from us
o Inclusive language incorporating personal perspective (develops
ethos) into his argument
o Goes beyond speaking to his immediate audience
Guilt need not be an ingredient in our (re)consideration of history
o Believed that the distribution of guilt was unproductive in the path
towards reconciliation
Repeated reference to the Mabo Case
o Mabo threw the country into social, political and psychological
turmoil
o References appropriate to when it was delivered show an in-depth
knowledge of contemporary issues, developing ethos

Black Armbands Political Correctness. These are lines that resonate

o Truncated sentences add emphasis and consequently impact
o Listing of emotional labels linking back to beginning of the speech

Reception

Ideas of justice, peace and the struggle against oppression received as

resonating core Australian values
Many Australians agreed with John Howard and subsequently would not
have agreed with Pearsons biased representation of Australian history

Paul Keating Redfern Speech

Context, Occasion and Audience

Delivered in Redfern Park on the 10th of December, 1992

Launch of Australias celebration of the 1993 International Year of the
Worlds Indigenous People
Immediate audience was indigenous community of Redfern, but also
broadcast to the wider Australian public

Purposes and Exigencies

To recognise European settlement as the cause of indigenous problems

Acknowledgement of events of the past
Recognition of past injustice as a way of healing the future
Dispossession of Aborigines

Values

Equality
National identity
Acknowledgement/recognition/honesty
Empathy
Unity
Inclusion
Citizenship

Structure

Thesis issue/concern
Argument reasons
Recommendation should/should not happen

Significant Quotes and Themes

Succeeding in the test which so far we have always failed

o Establishes humility, admission of failure which appeals to emotion
of the audience
Redfern is a good place to contemplate these things
o Values immediate context and justifies decision to present it there
The starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us
o Low modality language signals a problem that needs to be
addressed

Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing took the

traditional lands brought the diseases
o Accumulation of short sentences, powerful statements that allocate
responsibility through pro-reconciliatory rhetoric
Repetition of Imagine
o Anaphora, hypotheticals show empathy and understanding towards
the Aboriginal people
I am confident that we will succeed in this decade
o Conclusive statement, high modality language expresses certainty
towards obligations of non-Indigenous Australians

Reception

The Age a great speech because it was about leadership, principle

and courage. In the history of Aboriginal peoples relationship with the
non-Aboriginal political and legal institutions of this nation, no prime
minister had said what he said