Rhetorical Analysis Of Mary Fisher Speech

808 Words4 Pages

Mary Fisher a political activist pushing to get her voice heard, excelled. She was born in Louisville, KY and received her degree from the University of Michigan. Daughter of a wealthy Republican Max Fisher, Mary contracted HIV from her second husband and was inspired to become an activist for the prevention of HIV/AIDS. At the 1992 Republican Nation Convention Address on August 19th in Texas Fisher gave her speech, “A Whisper of Aids” representing the AIDS community. During her speech she provided words of encouragement as well as inspiration for others to find their own voice and stand up for HIV, she gave the audience education about how the virus is spreading, and left them with an image in their head that could be seen for years. Ethos, logos, and pathos were used to bring her response aboard effectively. Mary Fisher established ethos from the beginning of the speech. She spoke in a way that had the audience engaged. She was …show more content…

The audience was brought in when she showed them that they both had the same goal, to make sure their children were safe. At the end of her speech she began to get emotional and said early goodbyes to her children to stress the urgency of this disease and the reason of giving the speech. Fisher stated, "I will not hurry to leave you, my children, but when I go, I pray that you will not suffer shame on my account.” One can only imagine the hurt of this statement, but she drew in every parent in the audience with that statement. That statement also shows that she feels a sort of shame due to the disease she has, and prayed that her children would not feel the same. I am sure that every parents fear is to leave their child behind and not know who is looking after them or what their lives will become, and that is what she wanted the audience to