A Rhetorical Analysis Of Ursula K. Le Guin's Speech

A rhetorical analysis simply “breaks down” the text from the “whole” into “pieces” in order to understand how the authors write and what rhetorical patterns they adopt to achieve their goals – that is, usually, to convey a main idea or a message to the audience. This paper will help the reader have a deeper look and understanding of a famous speech “A left-handed commencement address” by Ursula K. Le Guin by analyzing in detail her effective use of rhetorical elements, including subject, thesis, purpose, audience, persona, ethos, authoritative testimony and analogy. The subject of the speech is clearly about women’s right and their roles in the society, which is an extremely sensitive topic at that time. Actually, there is no explicit thesis …show more content…
Therefore, they should take their rightful roles and live their own life despite the fact that they may have to cope with a number of difficulties, and even failure. Unlike a typical commencement address, whose chief purpose is to delight the audience by simply celebrating the graduates, Le Guin’s primary purpose is to teach and to move. This is partly suggested by her title “a left-handed commencement address” to indicate that she is going to talk something unusual for a normal graduation speech. First of all, she teaches them the reality of the world we are all living in – a “man’s world” which speaks “man’s language”. She proves this by telling the truth that “commencement are usually operated [by] male or ought to be” and “intellectual tradition is male”. She is pointing out it is traditionally assumed only men can go to college and it is very rare to see a woman in college. Thus, the majority of educated people in the society are men. That is why they always have a right to speak in the public, as Le Guin says: …show more content…
First of all, she demonstrates a wide range of knowledge throughout her address. The opening sentence also helps establish her credibility because she is talking about the subject of women’s right in term of a woman, she can “speak aloud in public in the language of women” so she has specific experiences about the topic and hence, is qualified about it. She also uses knowledge about the subject to teach her audience about the reality of the world and the society where women are living in, which is previously analyzed in the purpose paragraph of this paper. Secondly, Le Guin also establishes common ground with the audience. She quotes a famous saying of the Greek “If you don't understand Greek, please signify by nodding”, which expresses her attempt to connect with the audience and her care for their understanding in her speech. Moreover, she states: “Because you are human beings you are going to meet failure. You are going to meet disappointment, injustice, betrayal, and irreparable loss.” By this, she is creating a common ground with the audience as “human beings”. The author believes, because all of us are humans, failure is very common and inevitable, and everyone will at least one time cope with it and surfer all the terrible feelings it brings to us. In addition, she calls her audience “my sisters and daughters, brothers and sons” to create a