Oprah Winfrey Rhetorical Analysis Essay

A New Hollywood Oprah Winfrey is one of the first black female billionaires of the Unite States. Although Winfrey was born into poverty to a single mother and experienced a very rough childhood, she has become a very successful and influential person in the media. At the 75th Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey accepted the Cecil B. DeMille award where she delivered a very puissant and motivational speech advocating for racial equity and female representation in Hollywood, necessity of free press, and importance of bringing situations of harassment an assault to light. Oprah Winfrey uses anecdotal narration, exemplification, anaphoric repetition to highlight the inequality, oppression, and lack of representation within the film industry and beyond.

Opening her speech, Winfrey recounts the time in 1964, when she was a little girl and witnessed the moment the first black man, Sidney Poitier, won an Oscar. She narrates that she has attempted to describe what the moment “means to a little girl” that grew up unfortunate and poor like she did. Winfrey’s obvious emotion in that story is moving and influences the celebrities in the audience and also the viewers streaming the award show. By sharing her story of witnessing Poitier winning, Winfrey highlights how the event was very influential on her as a little girl and conveys to the audience that representation in media can be very significant and powerful for a person. Not only does the emotion in the speech emphasize the importance of representation, but the anecdote bolsters Winfrey’s credibility. When telling the story, she points out that she was “watching from the cheap seats” as her mother returned from her cleaning job. Her impoverished childhood strengthens her credibility in advocating for the unfortunate and unheard because she was once the marginalized person she now speaks for. By sharing this aspect of her past it shows the audience the importance of giving people

Winfrey first uses this repetition when she demonstrates her sustained assault and abuse. She explains that “They are domestic workers and farm workers” and “They’re our athletes” and many other things. Winfrey repeats those statements in order to highlight the significance and importance of those woman. She points the women out specifically and identifying them, so the audience recognizes them. Oprah also uses repetition again at the end of her speech when she wraps everything up. She explains how people, men and women, behave and she repeats the phrase “how we” saying “how we experience shame”, get mad, or fail. The anaphoric repetition of that phrase exemplifies cohesion and preforms a sort of unity between people. This accomplishes the involvement of the audience in Winfrey’s speech. By feeling involved in the speech, the audience can easily be more moved and influenced by the message of the