Speech Analysis: Rhetorical Canons in Barbara Bush's Speech

This essay provides an analysis of Barbara Bush's commencement speech at Wellesley College, focusing on its intended audience and the rhetorical strategies employed by the speaker. The analysis identifies the speech's intended audience as the female students of Wellesley College, exploring how Bush aimed to connect with them despite potential differences in perspective. The essay highlights the use of figures and tropes, such as metaphors related to conflict, to establish common ground and rapport with the students. Furthermore, the analysis examines the speech through the lens of the four canons of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, delivery, and style, assessing Bush's mastery of each. The essay concludes that Bush effectively demonstrated these canons, showcasing originality of thought and a well-arranged delivery, ultimately changing perspectives on women’s lives.

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Speech Analysis
SPEECH ANALYSIS

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Speech Analysis
Analyzing Barbara Bush's Commencement Speech at Wellesley College:
The above mentioned speech by Barbara Bush was intended for the students of Wellesley
College. In the speech, the speaker talked about how to be happy by giving less importance to
career goals and aspirations and more importance to one’s family. The speech was mainly
intended for the women students of the college by giving an alternative view on women’s role in
our society. One thing that is interesting in the speech is that the speaker is known for the
achievements of her husband and thus it would be futile to talk about independent achievements
of women because that would seem a superficial claim. Thus, the speaker used various tropes in
her speech using phrases like ‘battlefield’, ‘weapon’, and ‘opposition’ metaphorically to
establish the rapport with the students, who had been taught in their university to perceive
women like Barbara to be wrong representatives of women empowerment (youtube.com, 2019).
In other words, she used these figurative phrases to match the ‘common ground’ with the
students so that they would listen to her speech without making chaos. This technique is an
excellent example of speech delivery. On the other hand, the speaker talked with many students
during the speech and wanted to know what their life goals were in order to tell them that their
happiness should have been their utmost life goal (youtube.com, 2019). So, this shows how well
arranged her speech was. Moreover, changing the perspective on women’s lives, she showed
originality of thoughts. So, it can be said that all the four rhetorical canons can be perceived from
her speech.

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Speech Analysis
Reference list
youtube.com 2019, Barbara Bush - Wellesley Commencement Speech, Retrieved on: 30th March,
2019, From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VhmyA4Kd80