A Rhetorical Analysis Of Oprah Winfrey's Speech

Oprah Winfrey is an American proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist, but most of all Oprah Winfrey is a powerful speaker. Oprah has been an inspiring part of many who need her words of wisdom to get through a tough day. What makes her so inspiring is the way she speaks. Oprah always speaks in such a way that she gets her audiences to feel and act upon her ideas without having to bring it out in black and white. As in her Golden Globes speech Oprah invites the audience to tell of their own truths regardless of the risk it may hold without having to literally come straight out and say it. Oprah is a phenomenal speaker who uses personal anecdote, imagery, and historical allusions to argue about race and gender representation in Hollywood, the need for free press, and the importance of speaking out against harassment and assault. …show more content…
Oprah uses her personal anecdote to formulate an argument for equitable race and gender representation by saying that she remembered never seeing a black man celebrated like Sidney Poitier was that night, in 1964, that he had won the very same award that she was receiving now. There are no words to what it meant to her little girl self, seeing history except “‘Amen, amen, amen, amen.’” Oprah uses her anecdote to describe in detail where she once was so that the “little girls watching” know that it is possible to come from hardship to the Golden Globe stage because Oprah Winfrey herself came from the same set of