Liam Downing

4/3/20

Diana Nyad: Never, ever give up

Rhetorical Analysis

For years the world’s greatest swimmers have attempted a near impossible task. Since the

1950’s some of the planet's most talented swimmers have tried to swim the 90 mile stretch from

Cuba to Florida and none have succeeded. None until Diana Nyad set out on her fourth attempt

at the near impossible swim. In December of 2013, Nyad was featured in a Ted Talk in which

she uses rhetorical devices in order to prove points and to support the main goal of her speech, to

never give up on your goals. Nyad uses logos, hyperbole, ethos, and pathos in her talk to evoke

emotions in the audience. Her purpose is to tell her story as well as inspire others that have failed

to keep reaching for their dreams and she does so effectively with the help of rhetorical

strategies.

Diana Nyad creates such a powerful speech by using rhetorical devices. One of the most

evident of these strategies is logos. Logos is the persuasion an author or speaker uses to build

credibility by appealing to the audience's sense of logic. Nyad uses logos in her speech when she

says that if she can accomplish a seemingly impossible task that she had previously failed at then

so can the audience. She states “ Find a way. You have a dream and you have obstacles in front

of you, as we all do. None of us ever get through this life without heartache, without turmoil, and

if you believe and you have faith and you can get knocked down and get back up again and you

believe in perseverance as a great human quality, you find your way” (Nyad). When making this

argument, Nyad makes the audience think with logic. She goes on to say that despite these

obstacles that all humans face, they are able to be overcome even after failure. Because she has
overcome her own hardships, her use of logos in her talk is very effective. She uses the idea that

if she is able to accomplish something that she previously could not, so can the members of the

audience. The use of logos helps support the main purpose of her talk, to inspire others that have

failed to keep reaching for their dreams and to never give up.

Another rhetorical strategy that Nyad uses to back up the main point of her talk is her use

of hyperbole. Hyperbole is exaggeration or claims that are not meant to be taken literally. She

uses hyperbole to overplay how difficult the voyage was in order to cause the audience to rethink

how attainable their goals are. At one point in the talk she refers to a time when someone asked

her if she would be making the trip with a team. Nyad responded by saying, “‘And by the way --

it's amusing to me that journalists and people, before these attempts, often ask me, "Well, are you

going to go with any boats or any people or anything?" And I'm thinking, what are they

imagining? That I'll just sort of do some celestial navigation -- And carry a bowie knife in my

mouth, and I'll hunt fish and skin them alive and eat them, and maybe drag a desalination plant

behind me for fresh water”’ (Nyad). She uses these extreme exaggerations to support her point

that our goals are more attainable than one may think. Although swimming from Cuba to Florida

is an incredibly hard voyage, her use of hyperbole causes the audience to re-evaluate their goals

and question if they are really as unattainable as we think. Introducing a voyage that is a lot more

difficult than the one she was preparing to accomplish (going with no crew) helps the audience

think about what is really achievable despite past failures and helps support her message.

Although this portion of her talk is clearly non literal, it greatly helps support the goal of her talk.

Additionally, another literary device used by Nyad to support the message of her talk is

ethos. Ethos is an appeal to the audience's moral guidelines and ethics. Nyad uses ethos when she

talks about her motivation for completing the voyage. She raises the question how much time
does she have and explains that she wanted to accomplish as much as she could before her time

was up. This is in accordance with the ethics of most people, it is ethical to try and make the

most of your life and not let it go to waste. “When I turned 60, it wasn't so much about the

athletic accomplishment, it wasn't the ego of "I want to be the first." That's always there and it's

undeniable. But it was deeper. It was "how much life is there left?" Let's face it -- we're all on a

one-way street, aren't we? And what are we going to do? What are we going to do as we go

forward, to have no regrets looking back (Nyad)? She explains that a deep motivator for her was

that she did not want her life to go to waste. She connects with the audience's ethical side and

builds credibility that helps her prove her argument.

The final major rhetorical device used in Nyads talk is pathos. Pathos is a method of

convincing people with an argument drawn out through an emotional response. Diana uses

pathos and appeals to the audience's emotions when she discusses how if you give up after

failure you will never attain what you want. The use of pathos helps evoke the audience's

emotion in order to persuade and inspire them. Nyad displays pathos in her talk when she

discusses all the obstacles that she had to face while in the water on her historic swim. By

sharing all the extreme hardships she faced with the audience, it causes the crowd to think that if

she was able to overcome so much after failing over and over again then maybe they are too.

Nyad stated, “And then there are the crises. Of course there are. And the vomiting starts, the

seawater -- you're not well. You're wearing a jellyfish mask for the ultimate protection. It's

difficult to swim in. It's causing abrasions on the inside of the mouth, but the tentacles can't get

you. And the hypothermia sets in. The water's 85 degrees, and yet you're losing weight and using

calories. And as you come over toward the side of the boat -- not allowed to touch it, not allowed

to get out, but Bonnie and her team hand me nutrition and ask me how I'm doing, am I all right. I
am seeing the Taj Mahal” (Nyad). By explaining how many obstacles she had to face on top of

an already difficult task Nyad builds an emotional connection with the audience that helps her

persuade them to never give up.

In conclusion, Diana Nyad creates a strong case for why people should never, ever give

up. She does so by using literary devices such as pathos, ethos, logos, and hyperbole. Through

using these rhetorical strategies she is able to better persuade the audience. Diana’s style and

tone is very inspiring and motivational which also helps her prove her message. She is able to

create a compelling argument and inspires the audience to never quit on your dreams. By using

pathos she appeals to the audience's emotions when she discusses how if you give up after failure

you will never attain what you want. She uses logos by appealing to the audience's sense of logic

on the basic premise that if she failed previously and then accomplished her goals so can

someone else that has failed. Nyad uses ethos to appeal to the audience's ethics by raising ethical

questions. And finally, the use of hyperbole overplays how difficult the voyage was in order to

cause the audience to rethink how attainable their goals are.