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Ellis Sondrup

Mr. Hurt

English 10H

6 May 2019

To Better the Future

Oprah Winfrey, actress and philanthropist, addressed the audience at the Golden Globes

award ceremony, specifically American women and girls viewing, in her acceptance speech for

the Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement. She aims to instill determination to create

and hope for brighter future for women in America using various rhetorical techniques to reach

her audience.

Winfrey opens her speech with a personal experience, telling a story, connecting to her

audience in an intimate way. She recounts the winning of the Cecil B. DeMille award by Sidney

Poitier, the first black man to do so, and her feelings towards that moment, comparing them to

her winning the same award. Narrative, like this experience, allows Winfrey to personally

connect to the listeners. She describes “a kid watching from the cheap seats as [her] mom came

through the door bone tired from cleaning other people’s houses,” evoking a feeling of

sympathy. (Winfrey para. 1). Ultimately, this facilitates a feeling of trust between speaker and

listeners, allowing Winfrey to persuade her audience more effectively. It puts her listeners in her

position, giving them a sense of determination to change their situations and look inward to

improve themselves.
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Within the middle portion of her speech, Winfrey utilizes a rhetorical shift, from general

to specific across three paragraphs, to push her point across to the audience. She begins by

acknowledging women in general, then transitions into women who have been victims of abuse,

working women, and educated women, and finally uses the example of Recy Taylor to continue

to inspire the women and girls in her audience. Starting broadly in her description, she includes

all of the women in her audience, drawing them into her words, and then moves to “women

whose names we’ll never know. They are domestic workers and farm workers. They are working

in factories and they work in restaurants and they're in academia, engineering, medicine, and

science” (Winfrey para. 5). Finally moving to an example, she hits home with many: the civil

rights movement. She brings conviction and courage with the story of Recy Taylor, then draws

listeners in once again, making it modern by describing “women [who] have not been heard or

believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is

up” (Winfrey para. 6). A general to specific rhetorical shift brings the audience through a story

and an experience, creating a motivation for listeners to better their lives and perspectives by

allowing them to experience the determination of others.

In the final two paragraphs of her acceptance speech, Winfrey utilizes assertive diction to

connect her previous points and examples to today. She stays firm in her belief that women that

choose to maintain hope and drive for a brighter future, shape it. Her assertive diction maintains

the sense that the future will be bettered “because of a lot of magnificent women,... and some

pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to

the time when nobody ever has to say ‘Me too’ again” (Winfrey para. 9). This gives listeners the
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desire to follow her advice and take her position, given her strong sense of leadership behind her

words, brought by her use of assertive diction.

Throughout her acceptance speech, Oprah Winfrey utilizes personal narrative, a

rhetorical shift, and assertive diction, while telling of extraordinary women, to instill a hope in a

brighter future for women and the determination to create that brighter tomorrow.