Rhetorical Analysis Of Ellen Degeneres Speech: Be True To Yourself
Ellen opens her speech using humor by poking fun at both the students and the staff of the school. She moves on to a serious note saying that she was completely confused on what she should do with her life. “When I finished school I was completely lost…” Having no ambition to do anything she drifted from one job to the next looking for somewhere to belong. After saying this she says that her point is that she though she knew who she was when she was the same age as the students but she was wrong. After all the things she had been through she would have settled with some random dead end job paying enough to make the payments for the rent. It doesn’t matter what happens now because twenty years down the road the odds of you changing are overwhelming.
The path she had to take to get to her stardom was not easy; her girlfriend at the time was killed in a car accident. Ellen not knowing of the accident drove past the scene of the crash and went home only to find out later what had happened and whom it happened to. That night Ellen went home to her basement apartment with no heat and no air and wrote what she though it would be like to have a conversation with god.
In her conclusion she says that it doesn’t matter what happens you just need to be true to yourself. As things change you need to live your life with integrity don’t let people make you into something that you are not. That you should make your own path and live how you want to.
Since Ellen is a comedian, so she uses Pathos and makes an emotional connection using her humor. She incorporates humor through out her whole speech “…so I had to break the word down myself… commencement common and cement” This is one of the first jokes she uses and breaks the ice and connects to the audience right from the start. Another way she uses it is because it allows her to lighten up the darker more serious parts of her speech keeping our attention unwavering though out the whole speech. “Why is she suddenly gone and there are fleas here? ” This quote is taken when Ellen was talking from when Ellen was talking about her girlfriend dieing in a car accident. She could have kept this a very serious and personal part but shines a bit of comedy on it. She does this very skillfully so that she doesn’t wash her point out with comedy she but instead uses it in a way that really reaches out and grabs the attention of the audience and wraps us up in her story.
Another way she uses Pathos is with emotion. Ellen Appeals to our emotion by saying things that we can all relate to. She said that at one point in her life she was lost and unsure what she should do with her life. This really got to me because, to an extent, I think we’ve felt like that before we know what it’s like to feel lost and alone like you have no where to go and no point in moving on, but then you find something. A little glimmer of light. It’s not much but it’s enough to keep you going just to see if maybe one day you’ll get there and even if you don’t get exactly where you wanted to be you can say that at least you didn’t give up on your dream and you did everything in your power to reach that goal. Ellen also said “Follow your passion, stay true to yourself never follow anyone else’s path” Ellen really pushed that you need to stay true to yourself over everyone else.
The Pathos that she used when she said this was overwhelming. She didn’t speed through it but she didn’t say it to slow she spoke very boldly and said what some people just need to hear. Be yourself don’t do something just because everyone else is doing it. In conclusion Ellen relied almost fully on pathos to really connect with the audience on both an emotional and comedic level. Ellen is a master with words and a comedic legend if she can pull though everything that she did and be as well off as she is, it gives hope to people that feel like they wont make it anywhere.
