The Rhetorical Analysis of Nelson Mandela’s “I Am Prepared To Die Speech”

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Nelson Mandela’s “I Am Prepared to Die Speech” focuses on the struggle for equal rights of African American’s in South Africa. Throughout his speech he mentions universal themes such as the use of violence, discrimination, and equality. Since the speech was delivered during Mandela’s defense trial, the official intention of the speaker was to address the accusations brought against, however, the Mandela’s broader intention was to expose the injustices of the government and to gain national and international support for the cause of equal rights for his people.

Mandela wastes no time to create ethos in his speech, by starting to establish it from the very beginning. He starts off by claiming that he is the “First Accused” and in which he clearly portrays a persona for his audience to view him as, such as he is the first of many. He then chooses to clarify the fact that he holds a “Bachelor’s Degree in Arts” and that he has “practiced as an attorney” for many years. By doing this, Mandela uses ethos to create credibility and to give him a reliable platform from which he can base the rest of his argument to the audience.

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After establishing his credibility, Mandela continues on to say he is a “convicted prisoner serving five years” for “leaving the country without a permit” and by making his statement he reminds the people of South Africa of the foolishness of his conviction, a theme which he continues to push on throughout the entirety of his speech. By doing so he appeals to logos by planting the idea that the South African government has made questionable judgment calls in the past and can continue to make them. Mandela then appeals to logos and pathos by claiming that he was “one of the persons who helped to form Umkhonto” and that he “did so for two reasons.” By stating the charges made against him and defending his reasoning in doing so, Mandela further establishes his credibility by being honest and relating to the audience in the aspect that they would do the same if they were in his position.

Mandela’s effectively managed to give a speech that altered the movement he fought so hard for, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to convince court officials of his innocence. It was an expected verdict seeing as though it is not a democratic state and government officials were against his movement. Throughout the speech he made sure to discredit the government and used them as the reasoning for all the charges against him. Mandela was a successful advocate for his movement but did not advocate well in the battle for his innocence.

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