In her speech to the graduating class of Southern Methodist University, former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice presents herself as a discriminated person who's hopes were dismissed in order to appeal to her audience of students who may face similar adversity when pursuing their future. In her speech, Rice’s focus is on the belief that nothing is impossible in an effort to encourage her audience to pursue their dreams. To emphasize her point, Rice uses counterclaim, irony, and analogy to motivate the audience to follow through with their passions. Condoleezza Rice uses counterclaims to convince her audience to chase their dreams. Rice begins her counterclaim by discussing the things Martin Luther King has accomplished in a democracy-led nation. …show more content…
Rice’s counterargument is that King’s rally wasn’t triumphant because he was in democracy, but because King had a “clear goal”. Martin Luther King, along with anyone else that has determination, can achieve their dreams because “every life is capable of greatness”, and that it all “matters on where you are going”. Condoleezza Rice uses counterclaims in the example of Martin Luther King to encourage the audience to accomplish their passions that seem impossible. By denoting that King’s accomplishments were situational and instead stating that each individual is capable of greatness, it helps prove her point of following your dreams in the face of adversity because King was in a similar situation. Martin Luther King petitioned for civil rights in a severely racist town, but due to his determination, he was still able to gather support for his cause. Condoleezza Rice utilizes irony when she gives examples of people achieving their seemingly impossible dreams. One example of when irony is used is when Rice gives an anecdote of her …show more content…
Things looked bleak, but things take an ironic turn when Rice recounts how even with these obstacles, she still became “the Secretary of State” and “the president if she wanted to”. By retelling an anecdote with an ironic twist, it helps Rice’s purpose of encouraging the audience of graduates who may encounter adversity in the path of their dreams to keep pushing forward. If Rice can grow up in a prejudiced city where she was dismissed for her wild passion and became the first ever African American Secretary of State, then the audience can excel past deterrents and achieve their dreams. Who would’ve thought that Rice would achieve her “impossible” dream, but in an ironic twist the “impossible can very often be inevitable in retrospect”. The rhetorical device of analogy is used when Rice recounts a time when things were looking gloomy in Bush’s Administration to when George Washington and his troops were facing