Rhetorical Criticism In American Literature

Introduction

According to (Wet, 2017) , there are various ways in which we can assess a political speech, and thus partake in rhetorical criticism. The focus of rhetorical criticism has been a much abandoned area of study in South Africa, but many approaches to rhetorical criticism are found in the literature, especially in American literature, where the field of study developed substantially in the 20th century.

Ethos:

Ethos was initially defined by Aristotle in On Rhetoric as being reliable. He specified that we are more likely to have faith in people who have good character. Aristotle later extended this definition of ethos to add that we are more likely to be convinced by someone who is similar to us, whether by their inherent characteristics

Emotions — whether fear or love, pity or anger — are influential persuaders for your audience. An audience passionately stimulated in the right way is more likely to accept your claims and act on your appeals. By learning how to make emotional appeals, you greatly improve your value as a speaker (Andrew Dlugan, 2010).

Analysing the Speech:

The first paragraph “Before I begin, I would like to offer my thoughts and prayers to the families of the workers trapped underground at the Lily Mine in Mpumalanga.” He evokes some emotions like sadness and fear in his audience as he appears as someone who is caring and who has sympathy. He also appears as someone who is thoughtful because he sympathizes with the family by reassuring them that they are in his thoughts and prayers

Whilst he is describing this Planet Zuma, the audience is going to get a certain idea about the president, which in this case is a bad one. This is where he relies on the intellect of the audience to reach a certain conclusion. He also gives statistical data regarding the unemployment rate in South Africa emphasizing the fact that 8.3 million South Africans are jobless. He ends it off with testimonials of actual South Africans that are unable to find work. This shows that he has done his research thoroughly and this makes logical sense to include in his speech because that grabs the audience’s attention very