Ashritha Karuturi's Speech Analysis

This speech was delivered by Ashritha Karuturi, a sophomore in high school, at the University of Chicago as a part of the Take Action Chicago campaign to an audience of about 1,000 students ranging from high school to college from Illinois. The influential speech concerned homelessness in the United States, specifying in Chicago. It was a powerful call to action that motivated future leaders and innovators to take a stance against a condition that controls 610,042 Americans each night. The speech not only encompassed statistics and powerful personal stories but also example of ways to help cure the cause. The powerful speech carried out the goal of implementing a strong desire in youthful minds to make a difference in their community and better the nation. I’m psychic. I know exactly what each and everyone of you will do after this speech. I know that you will all leave this auditorium with resolute expressions upon your faces and march into the messy and broken world with a strong-willed determination to fix it. However, you cannot all march out blindly and change the world overnight …show more content…
How many of you saw a homeless person on the way to this event? How many of you saw a man with an unshaven face rubbing his hands together for warmth sitting alone in the abyss of humans on the streets of Chicago? How many of you went shopping for presents and passed people who wouldn’t receive any gifts for Christmas this year, never mind a nice dinner or even the warmth of a fireplace? That terrible truth is that we’ve all done it. We are all guilty of passing a homeless person and thinking nothing of it. What I would like to know is when this became a normalcy and who let it become one? Homeless people have always had a stigma attached to them; people seem to assume being homeless means you’re a stinky old convict on the streets prowling for victims when they are really just everyday citizens forced into situations that they can’t