The Persuasive Appeals of Hillary Clinton

Here's just a piece from my rhetorical analysis paper:

“Women’s Rights are Human Rights”: Hillary Clinton’s Use of Anaphora

            The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Plenary Session occurred September 4^th-15^th, 1995, in Beijing, China. At this Conference, over 4,750 delegates from 189 countries gathered to discuss the issue of the violation of women’s rights. On September 5^th, one of the speakers for the conference was first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton. In her speech, “Women’s Rights are Human Rights,” she educates and motivates the delegates of the conference to fight for the rights of women by using anaphoras to demonstrate ethos and provide a logical argument.

            Clinton’s first use of an anaphora occurs within paragraph nine. She speaks of edifying experiences Clinton increases her appeal to ethos. She explains, As Clinton recounts all of her experiences, her credibility in the eyes of her audience is increased. The delegates of the conference have a basis from which to trust her. They see her passion in the fight for women’s rights from which she hopes they are more willing to join her cause.

            Clinton effectively uses another passionately worded anaphora to inform the delegates of the conference what exactly “is a violation of human rights”. In doing so, she increases the clarity and the tension of her argument, thus providing her with a compelling argument. Repeatedly she defines that “It is a violation of human rights when, drowned, or suffocated…It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution…It is a violation of human rights when women are…burned to death…It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped…It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death…is the violence…in their own homes…It is a violation of human rights when young girls are brutalized by…genital mutilation…It is a violation of human rights when women are forced to have abortions or [be] sterilized against their will” (para. 19-25).

One cannot argue against the fact that Clinton’s address “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” in the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Plenary Session, affected the delegates in attendance. Through her use of multiple anaphoras, Clinton was able to inform the delegates of the problems that the women of the world face and motivate them to work for a change.