A Rhetorical Analysis Of Madelein Albright's Speech

Madelein Albright, the United States Secretary of State, gave a commencement speech to the graduating class of Mount Holyoke College in 1997. With that being a women’s college in Massachusetts, Albright uses emotional appeal, examples, descriptions and metaphors to inspire and motivate the graduating class to continue achieving greatness, especially as women in society. To begin, Albright starts off her speech by appealing to the audience’s emotions. She does this by saying, “as individuals, each of us must choose whether to live our lives narrowly, selfishly and complacently, or to act with courage and faith.” Albright chooses to start off with this statement to get the audience to question their own path of life. By doing this, it targets the audience’s emotions in wanting to live their life with
This leads to the empowerment of women speaking up for themselves. Another way Albright gave inspiration is by providing an example. She knows her audience are women, so she shares how, “women everywhere – whether bumping against a glass ceiling or rising from a dirt floor – are standing up, spreading the word that we are ready to claim our rightful place as full citizens and full participants in every society on Earth.” Albright illustrates this by highlighting how women across the world are contributing to fighting for the rights and equality of women. She gives an example to show the audience what they should be doing. The audience will listen to this example and feel the need to achieve greatness and work towards power in the future. Furthermore, Albright follows with descriptions of the women she has met. For instance, she claims how she has, “talked to women striving to ensure that their new peace endures and is accompanied by justice and an end to discrimination and abuse.” She provides descriptions to show the powerful women she has