Analysis Of Mary Fisher's 'A Whisper Of AIDS'

In the 1990s, not many people were educated about HIV and AIDS; therefore, the viruses spread rapidly. People infected each other with the virus without even knowing they had it. Another major issue was that doctors were giving many people the virus through blood transfusions. Once they realized what they had been doing, they were devastated. With this discovery, the reality of HIV and AIDS was truly understood. Mary Fisher delivered “A Whisper of AIDS” in Houston, Texas, at the Republican National Convention. She gave the speech with hopes to bring awareness to the Republican party of the growing epidemic of AIDS.
Three years before the speech, Mary Fisher was happily married to Brian Campbell and they had two children together, one biological
She believed that the Republican party’s attention focused on many widespread issues, but AIDS was not one of them, and she felt she had the power to change that. Prior to giving her speech, Mary Fisher was seen as a well off young woman from a wholesome family. Because of this image, she became the new face of the AIDS epidemic after giving her speech (Shaw.) In August 1992, Mary Fisher bravely stood before the Republican party to tell them she, along with millions of Americans, was HIV positive. Her braveness was very apparent as she spilled this kind of personal information to the entire nation. Mary Fisher’s address to the nation was one of the first public accounts of HIV anyone in the United States had given. She could see the terrible effects HIV and AIDS were having on individuals in America. It was becoming a monster no one could tame. As an activist for spreading awareness of AIDS, Mary Fisher pulled the heartstrings of citizens all over the country as she brought to light the ugly truths about HIV and
Fisher uses this appeal to show that not only does the AIDS virus not care about your race, gender, sexuality, or age, but that the list goes on proving that AIDS cares nothing about you. After establishing her sympathy for others with the HIV virus, Fisher continues on to say, “We have killed each other with our ignorance, our prejudice, and our silence.” There is both an anaphora and a caesura within this sentence. She included an anaphora, the repetition of “our,” to get the audience’s attention and make them understand that they’re guilty of helping the disease along even if they haven't contracted it themselves. Fisher incorporated caesuras in this sentence to help put an emphasis on mistakes Americans had made to help the disease