The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to two advocates for children’s rights, including a Pakistani teenager named Malala Yousafzai, at seventeen the youngest Nobel laureate in history. In her speech after receiving the Nobel Prize, Malala Yousafzai claimed that all children deserve to receive a proper education.
At the beginning of the speech, Malala uses rhetorical devices and appeals such as metaphors and pathos to convey her main argument. When she is thanking her parents for their “unconditional love” and support, she thanks her “father for not clipping [her] wings and for letting [her] fly” (5). Malala uses a metaphor to compare clipping the “wings” of a little girl, to having their opportunities taken away from her, she thanks her father for not taking opportunities away from her and letting her go to school. There are some people that don’t let their children, especially if they are girls, get a proper education; Malala insists that this shouldn’t be happening and that everyone should get an education so they can have a future full of opportunities. Malala then goes on to talk about when she was ten and her home, Swat, got attacked by terrorists and it changed from “a place of tourism and beauty” to a place “terrorism,” “more than 400 schools were destroyed. Women were flogged. People were killed. And dreams turned into nightmares.”(18). She is addressing saddening topics to bring strong feelings to the audience in order for them to listen to her and agree with her. She is trying to show to the audience that she wasn’t the only woman who didn’t get the education they deserved and that she is one of the thousands of people that have to go through violence and are threatened. She uses the feelings of the audience in order to persuade the people to support her and her argument of giving all children the education they deserve. Malala gives speeches in order to educate other people on what is happening in some countries and why they should fight to stop educational injustice.
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Next, Malala goes on to use juxtaposition and facts appealing to logos to continue adding to the idea that all children deserve an education. Malala talks about the time when she was attacked by terrorists for speaking up against oppression, however, “neither their ideas nor their bullets could win” (27). She uses a juxtaposition to compare the ideas of the terrorists who stopped girls from going to school to the bullets they shot and the people that stood up to them as she did. Malala gives an example of what she and other girls had to go through, and why she continues to stand up for educational rights. Malala goes on to support her argument by bringing up the fact that there are “66 million girls who are deprived of education.” (38). Malala is appealing to logos because she is using facts to show many girls are not having a proper education so she explains how important her fight for education is. Since she was among those “66 million girls” deprived of education, in her speech, she wants to demonstrate how big of a problem this is and she wants to show why the people should support her and act to reduce this number of girls deprived of education. Malala shows how many girls in the world have had their opportunities taken away from them and everyone should support the idea of giving every child a good education.
Lastly, Malala uses pathos to appeal to the feelings of the audience and an anaphora by repeating an idea. Malala mentions one of her friends who “dreamed of becoming a doctor. But her dream remained a dream. At the age of she was forced to get married.” (44). This is something that currently happens to girls around the world so it makes the audience feel bad for the girls that this happens to because they get their opportunities taken away from them without them having a choice. This adds to why the people should support Malala and this cause so that women can get complete education so they can get more opportunities and have a choice on what they want to do with their future. By the end of the speech, Malala repeats the idea of ending the era of children not receiving proper education, she does by repeating the same expression several times “Let this be the last time that a girl or a boy spends their childhood in a factory. Let this be the last time that a girl is forced into early child marriage. Let this be the last time that a child loses life in war. Let this be the last time that we see a child out of school. Let this end with us.” (63-67). Here she is using an anaphora repeating the expression “Let This…”, she does this to capture the audience so that everyone can come together against not giving education. Malala is telling the audience that if we come together these events will end so she is persuading the audience to support her. Malala uses rhetorical devices to persuade the audience to support her, her ideas, and all the people standing up against women and children not receiving enough education.
In conclusion, Malala used rhetorical devices, appeals, and strategies, such as comparisons, juxtapositions, repetitions, and pathos to convey her argument of all children deserve proper education, and to persuade the audience to support this cause.
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