Analysis Of Mary Fisher 1b361l

ANALYSIS The Traveling Disease “A whisper of AIDS” was delivered by Mary Fisher, the HIV-positive daughter of the wealthy and powerful republican fundraiser Max Fisher. Mary, the mother of two, Zachary and Max, delivered this moving speech in ten minutes during the designated ing time at the Republican National Convention in Houston Texas, 1992. As her speech progressed, the noisy, distracted audience grew still and listened. She raised awareness for AIDS by diminishing stereotypes and demonstrating how real people are affected by this traveling disease. Mary made her purpose clear; she appealed to everyone in her audience whether at home or at the convention by using beautiful language, and strong emotional appeal. “Two Hundred thousand Americans are dead or dying; a million or more are infected. Worldwide forty million, or sixty million or a hundred million infections will be counted in the coming few years.” Mary’s purpose was to raise awareness and she does that by first giving statistics of how many people are affected by this growing disease. When she delivered this speech in 1992, AIDS awareness was minimal, while its mortality rate for victims was at its highest in history. Her speech made it brutally clear that no one is safe. "Because unlike other diseases, this one travels," Fisher also diminished the stereotype that you were only in danger if you were gay; "If you believe you are safe, you are in danger. Because I was not hemophiliac, I was not at risk. Because I was not gay, I was not at risk. Because I didn't inject drugs, I was not at risk." Not only did she destroy the "gay stereotype" of AIDS victims, she also demolished all the other ways that people thought they could only get AIDS. Mary made her ion clear that her only purpose was to raise awareness to help find a cure by stating, "My call to the nation is a plea for awareness." "Because HIV asks only one thing of those it attacks: Are you human?" Mary Fisher was able to relate to everyone in her audience by relating the disease to anyone and everyone who is human. According to rhetorician Jennifer J. McGee, Fishers approach to humanizing those affected by ADIS, gives the disease personal connection to anyone. She redefined the people in the AIDS community as full human beings rather than objects. Fisher's speech made an immediate impression on the crowd because of the contrast it offered with the notably antigay and religiously conservative tone. “It (AIDS) doesn't care whether you are a Democrat or Republican. It does not ask whether you are black or white, male or female, gay or straight,

young or old." By stating all those different types of people, Fisher was able to reach everyone in her audience successfully. Fisher uses many rhetorical devices to add rhetorical creditability and to enhance her speech. Some of her rhetorical devices include;anecdote, metaphor, pathos and didactic. Her entire speech was didactic because she was persuading people not to place stereotypes on a person just because they have AIDS because you may not know how they got it. "To the millions of you who are strong, I issue this plea: Set aside prejudice and politics to make room for comion and sound policy." By using persuasive language that appeals to emotion, Fisher successfully applied pathos to her speech. She also told the story of Pastor Niemoller when he came out of the Nazi death camps to say, "They came after the Jews and I was a Jew, so I didn't protest... They came after me, and there was no one left to protest." This anecdote added substance and creditability to her speech because she compared herself to the Pastor. This anecdote was significant because it made the point that if she didn't say something no one would. One main metaphor Fisher used was comparing the AIDS community with family. By framing the AIDS community as a family, Fisher could easily fit herself into her speech by presenting herself in the daughter and mother roles to which she was accustomed, which supplied sufficient usage of metaphor. By the end of the night Mary Fisher had stunned the audience, and had reached her goal which was to raise awareness of AIDS and its effects on society. She accomplished this by calling out to every human and showing her audience how everyone is alike. She also effectively used stories and comparisons to further her point of unity and comion. Fisher helped erase some prejudices that were before held to the AIDS victims and demonstrated that everyone is affected in some way by the AIDS epidemic.

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