Hunt 1

Donnay Hunt

Mr. Hurt

English 10 H-Period 3

27 April 2019

Rightful Education

Former First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama, in her speech, “Let

Girls Learn”, emphasizes the lack of equality within the rights of young women's education.

Obama’s purpose is to bring awareness to the public of how few opportunities are available to

girls, and how many are suppressed. She adopts an informative tone in order to show adults what

is truly occurring in the world around them.

Obama begins and ends her speech by describing how an ordinary person can change and

affect women's lives for the better. She appeals to the capabilities of the audience members using

anaphora, directing them to help join others in making a change “if we provide more

scholarships for girls so they can afford school fees”(2) and “if we build adequate school

bathrooms for girls” (2). She also suggests that “we should never have to accept our girls having

their bodies mutilated or being married off to grown men as teenagers”(9) and “we should never

have to raise them in societies that silence their voices and snuff out their dreams”(9). Obama’s

continuous repetition supports her cause of helping young women be better cared for in order to

show that if people come together, they are able to take a stand and make a change for the better.

The repetitiveness creates a direct tone to inspire the listeners to help empower women and their

rights.

As Obama progresses through her speech, she exploits the true nature of problems

occurring around everyone that they may not be aware of and how people can make a difference.
 Hunt 2

She is able to do so by identifying specific examples within the world that she advocates for, to

educate “both Jordanian children and children whose families have fled the conflict in Syria to

highlight the power of investments in girls education”(4). She also provides evidence that

standing up for a cause does work as many generations before us have by “taking their bosses to

court, fighting to prosecute their rapists, and leaving their abusive husbands”(5). Obama uses her

journey and experiences in order to demonstrate that it only takes one person to start a movement

and make a difference. The immense amount of passion Obama spoke with, helped the audience

to understand that the inequality for women does exist and can be helped with more education.

Obama then shifts to defining the inner characteristics of the women and all the untapped

potential they have. She appeals to the earnest emotions of the readers, as she uses tone shifts to

describe women of having “a spark of something extraordinary inside them, and they are so

hungry to realize their promise”(8) yet they “walk for hours each day to school, learning at

rickety desks in bare concrete classrooms”(8) to inevitably “face heartbreaking odds”(8). Obama

expresses her feelings in this way to drive home the feeling that because young girls and women

have so much potential, if they could just be aided in any way possible, it could bring out the

best in them. The tone shift from positive to negative allows the readers to see the hope and

promise in the girls, to understand what is being taken away from them. This is intended to push

the audience to take action.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama was able to bring awareness to the public about the

opportunity inequalities given to women. She exemplifies how they have been suppressed;

however, with help or even the smallest act, people can help educate them to continue to

empower women.