This text is Elizabeth Glaser’s speech to the Democratic National Convention in 1992. The text can be identified as an political speech, due to the many features and conventions of this text type. In the speech, Elizabeth Glaser uses rhetorical devices, memorable sayings and slogans in order to call the audience to action and to convince them of her viewpoint on the topic. Throughout the speech, Glaser uses various rhetorical and propaganda devices as well as ethos, pathos and logos in order to appeal to her wide target audience. Through the implementation of these various techniques and devices, Glaser effectively addresses the issue of AIDS to her target audience.
As the speech was delivered to the Democratic National Convention, one can conclude that the target audience of this speech are supporters of the Democratic Party in the United States. This is also evident in Glaser’s speech, where she solely uses American people in order to back up her claim on the matter of AIDS. Furthermore, she calls out the Democratic Party and asks for their help, making it clear who her target audience is. From the ideas that she is speaking for, one can also deduce cultural values of the time, such as equality for all which is seen when Glaser uses the rhetorical technique of Hypophora hen comparing the rich and the poor to say “Is their life any less valuable? Of course not.” Furthermore a better health care is also believed in and wanted, as health care at the time of this speech is “seriously under-funded”. This value of wanting a better health care is then also backed up by the example of AIDS care costs, stating that “someone without insurance can’t afford this” as it costs “over 40,000 dollars a year.”
Glaser opens the speech with a summary of what happened to her, providing validation of her qualification and authority to speak in order to lecture, and call to action the target audience about this topic. She then continues on, stating the failed attempts of bringing attention to the need of AIDS research and care to the Presidents Reagan and Bush, as well as her desire, and the nation’s need, for a leader. Glaser then mentions a variety of examples concerning the topic of AIDS, both from her personal life, as well as from what she heard happen elsewhere in the country. She the concludes her speech by calling her target audience to action, the Democratic Party, telling them to vote for the correct people and to make America great again by stating several things America once stood for, such as hope, freedom, justice and equality, challenging the Democratic party to restore these values. This is done by the use of pathos, where Glaser appeals to emotion, saying that “all our lives, not just mine, depend on it.”
As previously established, the themes of this speech are in specific about AIDS, but also more generally about health care. This is established through her personal experiences as well as her word choice such as “We need health care for all”, which implies a change in the health care in the future. To further develop these themes thought the speech, Glaser uses multiple rhetorical devices. At the start, in order to establish her credibility, the rhetorical device of allusion is used as well as pathos within these first paragraphs, evoking feeling such as understanding and trust. Furthermore, to address the seriousness of this issue, Glaser talks about the death of her daughter and uses a metaphor to say that she is “in a race with the clock”, meaning that her time is limited and could soon be over. This once again also uses pathos, which helps her set the tone and mood for the rest of the speech. The tone of this political speech encouraging, as Glaser tries persuade and encourage the audience to act now on the problem of AIDS and health care. In addition to this, Glaser uses the rhetorical technique of Hypophora in order to make the target audience question and reflect on the discussed topic more. Furthermore, Glaser’s desire for a new leader with several qualities is prominent throughout the whole speech, where she uses a metaphor to say that the new leader should “talk straight”, meaning that they should say the truth and not divert around it in order to suit heir personal interests. Furthermore through the sentence beginning “I believe in an America”, which is also an Anaphora in order to emphasise the sentence beginning, it also implies that no president before has ever talked “straight” as they have always previously “play[ed] games with number”, meaning that they altered these numbers in order to suit them. Finally, in the last part of the speech, Glaser refers back to the rhetorical device of Allusion, talking about what her daughter taught her in the last year in which she was alive. This also uses the rhetorical technique of Tricolon and parallelism in order to emphasise these things which she had learnt from her daughter. Throughout this speech, rhetorical devices are often implemented in order to emphasise and evoke specific emotions, tone and mood.
In conclusion, Glaser used a wide variety of rhetorical ad propaganda devices, slogans, and real-life events in order to appeal to her target audience and call them to action on the problem of AIDS and health care.
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