Rhetorical Analysis Of Harvey Milk

Rhetorical Analysis of a Harvey Milk Speech

Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was a big advocate for human rights, especially LGBTQ rights. This speech was given at the San Francisco City hall to celebrate California Gay Freedom Day during a rally. In the speech, Harvey Milk uses rhetorical questions directed at the audience, repetition, a lighthearted and humorous tone, and uses emotional appeals to get the audience to empathize with him, seem more trustworthy, and to make the audience think about why they should vote for gay elected officials.

To begin, Milk uses rhetorical questions to invoke thought and reflection in the audience. Near the beginning

One example of repetition is in the beginning of the speech, Milk lists many events that happened in 1977 in rapid succession with every sentence starting with “In 1977 we saw,”. Another example of repetition is near the end of the speech when Milk lists what a gay elected official must be, with every sentence beginning with “They must not,”. Milk repeats “In 1977 we saw” to emphasize how “we” as in gay people saw so much happen that year. The aforementioned part of the speech would sound different if he said “you” instead of “we” because it would make him seem more distant from the community and the audience would trust him less. He then repeats “They must” in the beginning of every sentence to create a listing affect, which also makes this part of the speech stand out and create more of a lasting effect on the audience. This helps further his purpose by making it more memorable. Now, even after the speech, the audience will remember the list and compare the actions of all current and future public officials to

To begin, Milk prefaces the speech by saying “I've never been able to talk to this many political people before, so if I tell you nothing else you may be able to go home laughing a bit,”. Later in the speech describes a local joke about how Anita Bryant said there would be a drought in California because of gay people and instead on the day Milk got elected, it rained. This made the mood less serious and relaxes the audience. It also has the effect of making Milk seem more relatable, because he has a sense of humor the audience will see him more as a friend instead of a public official. Now, because the audience is relaxed, they will trust him more and be more open to the argument he makes later in the