Bostick 1

Ella Bostick

Prof. Dunham

English 1101-531

16 October 2020

The Path to Peace

Racial inequality has been a problem that has divided our world and the people in it

forever. Bryan Stevenson is a passionate lawyer and political activist who fights for peace and

justice in our country. He gives a powerful speech at the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize

banquet as he wins Nonfiction award for his novel Just Mercy. Bryan delivers an amazing speech

persuading and informing his audience how they can create peace and justice in our world today.

He does this by his use of pathos, ethos, and logos, and his use of repetition throughout the

speech, which are all very effective appeals that get his point across.

The first thing Bryan does at the beginning of his speech is use ethos. He begins by

talking about his grandmother. He says that she grew up with parents that were enslaved, He

says, “My grandmother was always in my ear about growing up enslaved, and my sisters here

with me and our grandmother had a profound impact on us”. This illustrates that Bryan knows

what it’s like to not have justice from his grandmother. He also said he grew up remembering

what his grandmother said to him which was that “people will judge you by the company you

keep”. This shows the audience that Bryan grew up knowing that people were judging him, and

he was always looking for peace. By using ethos at the beginning of the speech, he makes his

audience invested in what he has to say.

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After he shows his credibility, Bryan does an excellent job of using logos during his

speech. Bryan organizes his speech very well which makes it easy to follow. He uses logos by

breaking his speech into four main points. These points are that we must be proximate, change

the narrative of racial difference, be hopeful, and do uncomfortable things. All these points are

based on how we can create peace and justice in our world. Within these points, he uses logic by

providing examples from our history that support his points. These examples are very important

because they help the listeners understand his points better and illustrates why they are so

important. One of these examples was specifically important, as he witnessed it. He says, “Black

children were not allowed to go to public schools', lawyers came into our community and made

them open up the public school in compliance with Brown versus the Board of Education”. The

fact that he witnessed one of his examples gives him even more credibility. He talks about each

point one at a time which makes you want to listen to the whole speech so you can hear all four

points. Bryan makes them easy to understand and provides excellent examples that support them.

Another effective method Bryan uses to persuade his audience is repetition. He does an

amazing job of explaining his four points in a way that shows his audience why they are so

important. He does this by repeating his points multiple times while he is talking about them. He

places emphasis on these words whenever he says them, to show the importance of them. This

makes the listener really want to listen to what he is saying, to see why he keeps repeating

specific words. He repeats the word ¨peace¨ multiple times throughout his speech because that is

the main thing, he wants people to focus on from his speech. He wants them to find peace. By

repeating the most important words in his speech, Bryan allows these words to stick in people's

heads, and persuades them to believe and understand the importance of these words.
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Bryan Stevenson uses pathos, another effective method to get his point across. In the

beginning of his speech he talks about his grandma hugging him so tight that he could barely

breathe. This makes the audience feel warm and comfortable listening to him. Another great use

of pathos is at the end when he talks about an old man with an angry, stern look on his face. He

repeats the man's angry look which makes you feel the man's emotion and picture it. Bryan also

describes in detail each of the bruises, scars, and cuts the man had from trying to register people

to vote. He says that the old man called his bruises and scars his “medals of honor.” Describing

this man’s bruises and scars makes you picture him in your mind and feel for him. By using this

man as an example, Bryan persuades the audience to fight for peace, even if it might cause pain

and suffering because it can lead to justice.

Bryan Stephenson delivered an incredible speech that encourages people to fight for

peace and justice in our society. He persuaded people to create peace and justice by using pathos,

ethos, logos, and repetition in his speech. He supported his logic with excellent examples and

was very passionate about what he was saying. His speech was easy to follow as it was very well

organized into four main points. Bryan’s message is highly effective because it is still as

important as ever today and will always be important. He showed his listeners that we still need

to fight for justice in our world and can never stop. Even if we get scarred from fighting for

peace and justice, we will never regret it because we are fighting for what is right and will bring

peace into our world.

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Works Cited

Stevenson, Bryan. Dayton Liberty Peace Prize, 1 November 2015, Schuster Performing Arts

Center, Dayton, Ohio. Acceptance Speech.