Madeleine Albright Rhetorical Strategies

Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State at the time, delivered a commencement speech to the graduating class of 1997, from Mount Holyoke College. Albright builds an emotional connection by encouraging the audience to break through the glass ceiling despite the challenges they face. Albright uses repetition, anecdotes, and allusions to interpret her use of pathos throughout the speech. The use of repetition by Albright emphasizes her message of perseverance. Towards the end of the speech, the speaker repeatedly states, “But no matter...have courage still —and persevere.” Albright’s use of repetition presents this tone to the audience with a sense of endurance. This endurance allows Albright to connect with the audience emotionally by representing a desire to strive for the achievements they wish to achieve, and gives the audience confidence to tackle challenges with

For instance, Albright states in her speech,”In Burundi, I have seen women taking the lead in efforts to avoid the fate of neighboring Rwanda, where violence left three quarters of the population female, and one-half of the women widows.” Albright uses these short stories in order to discuss the many groups of women who are determined to persevere through perilous challenges in order to set an example for the audience. This is a successful use of a rhetorical strategy because these anecdotes help convey what she is trying to promote to the audience by making them empathize with the women going through those hardships. Not only does she use anecdotes, but she also uses pathos by telling the audience about those groups of women who are poor, oppressed, or fighting for their country and by making the audience feel compassion for the women who are struggling. As Albright uses allusion in her speech, it allows the audience to connect past events in history with the speaker's