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Lou Gehrig Farewell Speech Analysis

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Lou Gehrig’s speech, Farewell to Baseball Address, delivers an emotional punch to the gut as he explains about how lucky he is to have had a wonderful life with some amazing people. He states “I might have been given a bad break, but I have much to live for,” infers his will to live.

Because of his positive standing with his fans and many other baseball players, Gehrig was able to utilize effectively ethos throughout his speech. Ethical proof is dependent upon the rhetor’s reputation among his audience and other people; for Gehrig, his reputation was one of a hard-working and determined man and so his audience already held favor with Gehrig. In fact, the first word in Gehrig’s speech is “Fans.” He immediately directly addresses the fans and by doing this, he is unselfishly noting that this speech is for them, the people who had always been there for him. Already, Gehrig had established the setting for his speech; although on the surface, was a retirement speech, it immediately became a speech about being grateful and giving thanks to the people who got him to where he was. Furthermore, by his first word as an address to the fans, Gehrig abolishes the hierarchical …show more content…

What Gehrig was arguing for in this speech was that hope was amidst the darkest of times, and he succeeded in doing this as his speech recognized to this day and age. Essentially, his speech comes down to recognizing what is truly important in one’s life. Gehrig felt that he was lucky to find the most important things in his life, and the final statement of his speech that summarizes his look on life: “…I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live

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Instead he told his story about being lucky. Be great fun for knowing so many great people and players. Thankful he got to suit up so many times to play he game of baseball. When reading about Gehrig before reading his speech, I found out that he retired because of a disease that was crippling and is now named after him. That is why in his farewell speech he did not want pity, which in my opinion shows great character.

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