Seymour 1

Shonna Seymour

Dean Leonard

English Comp. 1101.525

10/18/2020

Rhetorical Analysis of Bryan Stevenson for Just Mercy

Our world today is filled with a passionate battle for equality. Every news channel,

social media outlet, and conversation seems to center around one of two subjects: COVID-19

and the Black Lives Matter movement. The Black Lives Matter Movement has gained long

deserved global traction in a world while suffering through a pandemic. This brings a special

relevance to this rhetoric which is analyzed to line up with the chronological order in which his

speech was delivered. The power and poise of Bryan Stevensons words made for an extremely

inspiring speech about racism that moved a local audience.

Many people will talk about how long-ago slavery took place. In 2015 Bryan Stevenson

accepted a Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction he paints a picture otherwise. During his

acceptance speech, Bryan nearly immediately establishes ethos AND pathos by talking about his

childhood and his grandmother’s connection to slavery and racism. He describes his

grandmother with short stories and tidbits about being a strong and caring woman that was born

the daughter of a former slave in Virgina; having to later flee to Philidelphia for safety because

lynching and other racially driven hate crimes were a very real threat. The details of his

grandmother’s life draw in the listener, but the speech doesn’t stop and settle with her. After all,

it is an acceptance speech meant to highlight the road to this achievement, and portray gratitude.

Standing before his peers, other authors and other figures of the literary community, he

artfully used one more story of his grandmother to carry the pathos and the ethos into why he
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wrote is book. This is where he best establishes logos. After describing the general themes of his

book and expressing his belief in the power of literature, he establishes logos by explaining the

“power of proximity” (Stevenson, “2015 DLPP Nonfiction Winner Bryan Stevenson for Just

Mercy”) This appealed to both pathos and ethos because things matter most to people when it is

held close, or held dear. It was reminiscent of the famous and powerful words of German

Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller:

“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade

unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” (Niemöller, “Speech for the

Confessing Church”)

The power that Stevenson refers to speaks to the same mentality that Niemöller spoke to.

It’s unfortunately natural for people to care only about what is close to them. Stevenson refers to

being proximate as not only being physically proximate, but being familiar with causes that can

create peace.

After using “the power of proximity” to lead to a couple of other points, Stevenson comes

back around to racism, which he had only briefly touched on before. Up to this point, Stevenson

had only spoken about racism in brief mentions in secondary stories. He spent some time talking

about the evils of topics he knew that his audience could understand on a higher level such as

politics, drug dependency, fear, and anger. Seeing as racial and cultural literacy is a growing

concept in the United States at the moment, that was a brilliant way to re-establish logos to later

relate it to racism. He then establishes pathos once more by breaking down the concepts of
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racism. His audience was absolutely literate in terms of understanding the aspects of forced

servitude and the other abuses of slavery as atrocious. He used these as a comparison of lesser

evil versus his primary point and further established pathos: “The great evil of American slavery

for me was not involuntary servitude; it was not forced labor. The great evil of American slavery

was the narrative of racial difference that we created, the ideology of white supremacy we

created to legitimate slavery. And we never did anything about that.” (Stevenson)

After that strong appeal to emotions, he then reinforces his point by relating back to a

logical source, the thirteenth amendment. He does so by describing the lack of addressing racial

indifference or white supremacy in the thirteenth amendment. He repeatedly circles back around

to further establish ethos, pathos and logos. He tells story after story of people who referred to

their own experiences with the aftermath of slavery as “terrorism” as they described the

lynchings and other horrific acts that they witnessed. With 9/11 and the war on terrorism being a

recent event in comparison, it established all three (pathos, logos, and ethos) again without fail.

He kept building pathos, logos, and ethos over and over just to build up to his final point

about hope. At this point, Stevenson has gained so much credibility that the topic of hope feels

so inspiring. He gets the audience on the edge of their seats with one last story, going through the

cycle of pathos, logos, and ethos as he tells of an intimidating older man in a wheel chair.

Stevenson even cracked a joke to alleviate some tension at impeccable timing just to drive home

the story and wrap up the speech.

I felt that Stevenson nailed this speech. Upon hearing it the first time, I was drawn in over

and over again and was actually left wondering: What more can I do be a part of the solution?

What can I do to support the Black Lives Matter movement? I truly felt moved and inspired by
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this speaker. His artful storytelling, personal connection, and elaborate use of ethos, pathos and

logos made for a remarkable and successful piece of rhetoric.

Works Cited

Stevenson, Bryan. “2015 DLPP Nonfiction Winner Bryan Stevenson for Just Mercy”. Dayton

Literary Peace Price Annual Awards Ceremony. 01 Nov. 2015, Schuster Performing Arts Center,

Dayton, Ohio.

Niemöller, Martin. “Speech to the Confessioning Church”. 6 Jan. 1946. Confessing Church.

Frankfurt, Germany.