English Literature

AIDS is a disease which has engulfed and threatened the world today. The concept of AIDS creates fear and suspicion in the minds of all those who hear it. The infamous words HIV positive pointing towards the presence of this terrifying disease has plagued the world for centuries. The Republican Party had always been a strong denunciator of AIDS victims. It was seen merely as a tool used by the socially depraved in society, be it the homosexuals or the drug addicts. This ignorance was so strong that some Republicans felt AIDS to be an acronym for Anal Injection- Dirty Sex (MoldenHauer, 30) In the A Whisper of AIDS speech delivered by Mary Fisher on August 12, 1992, she spreads her own experience of being HIV positive to the community an action that was essential to teach people that the disease was an issue that had to be acknowledged, not ignored. As a patient herself, Mary Fisher had the power over a lot of metaphors and strong language that attract her listeners into understanding and feeling the situation that she was caught in. This was coupled with strong orator skills such as addressing the audience personally as if she is talking to them directly and making them feel like they were an essential part of the fight against AIDS (Lucas, 456). Through this speech, Mary Fisher exemplifies her feelings toward the subject through emotional and ethical appeals by using her own experience to emphasize the difficulties faced and caused by the AIDS epidemic. This speech held worldwide appeal and immediately silenced the huge audience (McGee, 192)

Mary Fisher uses an emotional appeal to give the audience the feeling that she can connect with them and influence them if they are ever infected by HIV or AIDS. Without having the attention of her audience, she would not be able to give her story about AIDS and how she feels about being HIV positive. By employing a pattern she stated the problem, solution and evaluation. Her main goal was to spread the word of AIDS and let people know that the disease did not discriminate whom it attacked making it a serious epidemic. Mary uses vivid words and metaphors that assisted in appealing to the audiences emotions. She uses shroud of silence describing what people have thought about the issue of HIV and AIDS. Fisher appealed to the empathetic conscience of her audience allowing them to acknowledge the disease even if it did not infect them. As a natural authority on the subject, she also appeals to the audience emotionally by using her own experience to let people know that she is part of the AIDS community. As a middle-class white woman, she dispelled the common belief that the disease affected African Americans and homosexuals. Fisher speaks of an activist who spoke of her background as a blond mother reducing the stereotypes placed on AIDS claiming it to be just what the awareness campaign needed (Fisher, 194).Since Mary Fisher tells her own story along with the rest of her speech she appeals to a larger amount of people with that quality alone.

Thus, Fisher also uses ethical appeal to let her audience know that she is aware of what shes talking about and that she possesses a large degree of knowledge on the subject of AIDS. Mary was infected herself, so she could tell her own experience on the disease, and let people know that the issue was of no joke. The common belief amongst most people was always the thought that AIDS could only infect homosexuals or African Americans, but she was a white, straight woman who was infected with AIDS. She uses many facts to back up her speech that AIDS should be an issue that should be looked upon at a greater expense. This was apparent in Marys entire recital of the speech without the use of flash cards. Fisher relied on memory to make her speech, showing her deep knowledge of the subject. She talks about how the epidemic is winning tonight even after everything they are doing to try and stop it, because people are dying everyday around the world and AIDS is basically unstoppable. Mary mentions scary facts like how AIDS is the third leading killer of young adult Americans and that is a huge amount of people. Facts like these make her speech credible to the audience, and also because she has the disease, she most likely did research on it.

A strong judger of the power of the rhetoric is its ability to draw up a realistic impression of the world. The AIDS victims in 1992 had given considerable room for stereotypes. With 50 of the victims being homosexual and 25 being drug users it was but a narrow 15 who contracted this disease through heterosexual relationships (Lemelle et.al, 60). So while AIDS was rampant in society, the groups it affected led to a limited and biased opinion on the subject. The speech made by Mary Fisher aimed to remove the stereotypes placed on AIDS and present it as a universal problem affecting millions around the world. However, there was a flaw in the universality theme applied by Fisher. A survey conducted in 1989 showed that AIDS was more probable to affect certain at-risk groups (Edgar et.al, 121). Thus, when Fisher spoke of creating an awareness campaign, seeking to change the lives of a universal group, her stand fell short of reality. The research proved to be starkly different from the speech thus creating a slight fall in Fishers speech.

Mary Fishers strong words had a profound impact on the audience. The noisy and rambunctious crowd was silenced into tears (Kelly, 1992).  Fisher proved that an audience could be affected by emotional repartee and powerful speech. However, the speech had one fatal flaw the speech had no long yielding results. Very little evidence was given to prove the exact numbers with which AIDS was endangering society. But, Fishers work resulted in creating awareness about AIDS through a party that shunned it. Her persuasive stance prevented people from being indifferent and angered by her words making her a perfect rhetorical speaker (Eidenmuller, 136).