Uriel Simon

Professor Dudley
ENG-112
1 February 2015
Listing the Shroud of Silence
I would never have asked to be HIV positive, but I believe that in all things there is a
purpose. These are the words of Mary Fisher, a victim of the HIV virus, in her speech entitled
A Whisper of AIDS. Fishers goal was to get the attention of the major political figures to try
and get people to be more educated on the subject of HIV/AIDS as she states, I asked the
Republican Party to lift the shroud of silence which has been draped over the issue of HIV and
AIDS. After establishing her credibility as a carrier of the HIV virus herself, Mary Fisher makes
use of pathos as well as logos and ethos to inform her audience about the deadly virus and
persuade them to raise awareness.
The first thing that Fisher does to grasp the attention of her audience is to introduce
herself as a credible figure, and she does so by stating that she was diagnosed as HIV positive.
Through this statement she became a reliable testimony of the tragedies and sadness that this
virus brings. Through further research I had found that Mary Fisher is actually the founder of a
non-profit organization that helps fund research for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Gaining this
credibility was key to her success in her speech especially when her target audience was the
Republican Party. Her main goal was to persuade the Party during the 1922 Republican National
Convention because they had the power to provide education for this deadly virus. By attaining
the interest and support of the political party, Fisher had become powerful in her dialogue. Her
words echoed through the halls with sad truths of this deadly epidemic. This brings me to her use

of Ethos in order to inform her audience of the severity of the subject. She revealed the brutality
of AIDS by stating facts such as two hundred thousand Americans are dead or dying or that a
million more are infected. These were facts that at the time were not known to those who
ignorantly avoided the taboo subject of HIV. Another fact that Mary stated was that HIV/AIDS
was actually the third leading killer in young Americans. She says these statements with such
concern for the subject that is leaves the audience in awe for what could possible come in the
future. Throughout the rest of her speech she doesnt give any real factual evidence to any of her
points however.
Invoking feelings of love and compassion through the use of pathos was one of her major
strong points throughout her entire speech. She constantly drilled emotional statements about her
family such as when she speaks of her father saying, My 84-year-old father, who has pursued
the healing of the nations, will not accept the premise that he cannot heal his daughter or my
mother refuses to be broken. Fisher also gets her main point across through this use of argument
by stating that not everyone was blessed and may have HIV but wont say it. She continues and
says that lives have been lost to AIDS but people wont reach out for help. Through it all she has
the undivided attention of the audience and even has some weeping with sympathy for victims
they may know. Eventually she reaches out to her own family. Mary tells her children how much
they encourage her to fight for life, to live every single moment of her life for their sake. I think
that her impact on the emotions of the audience has really hit hard in their hearts leaving them
with countless thoughts to take action against this epidemic.