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Jayla Starks

Mrs. Maciulewicz

ENG 1101

06 November, 2020

Rhetorical Analysis of “The gift and power of emotional courage”

When you think of courage, where does it take place? Many of you would say in the

classroom, on the field, and even standing up for what they believe in. Have you ever considered

mentality to be a key component of courage? Susan David gave a compelling speech about ‘the

gift and power of emotional courage.’ She was able to use pathos, logos, strong diction, and even

structure her speech in a creative way. David was not only able to explain why emotions are

valid, but also give an understanding of how emotions are a “powerful key contributor to

everyday life”. She makes connections using her life experiences and gives us a profound insight

on what emotional courage does for the human mind.

By using stories, David was able to display how her emotional state was challenged. Her

stories show her progress through the difficult times in her life. One of the most important

examples was the pain from her dad who passed away in her childhood.“We felt, as a family,

financially and emotionally ravaged. And I began to spiral down, isolated, fast. I started to use

food to numb my pain. Bingeing and purging. Refusing to accept the full weight of my grief.”

(David 2:50) As she said this, she said it with a heavy heart. The pain in her voice and face

showed us that this wasn’t an easy loss. From this downward spiral, she even continues to talk

about the hardships. This engages the listener and creates a feeling of emotional connection. This

quote is important because it offers a physical representation of what stories can add to a speech.
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She illustrated another example by describing how pain can be seen verse what it can feel

like, “When asked how I was doing, I would shrug and say, "OK." I was praised for being

strong. I was the master of being OK” (David 1:53). She was asked and gave an outside response

rather than telling what was happening within herself. The separation of these two perspectives

are given in a list that is complex and full of physiological outcomes: “ Life's beauty is

inseparable from its fragility. We are young until we are not. We walk down the streets sexy

until one day we realize that we are unseen. We nag our children and one day realize that there is

silence where that child once was, now making his or her way in the world. We are healthy until

a diagnosis brings us to our knees.” (David 4:29)​​This allows the listener to relate to any of the

mental challenges of different life paths and others lives. Nevertheless, David continues her

storytelling and emotional connections as she furthers in her speech. The relationship with this

emotional attachment stays throughout the speech, hooking the audience and allowing everyone

to have a personal relation with her speech.

David then uses reasons and statistics to persuade the audience. The speech has a moment

where it gives examples of common sense and subjects we have all talked about but probably

just brushed off. When David is talking about her survey that was conducted with “70,000

people” (David 5:55) and how a third of them either “judge themselves for having emotions or

push them away because they are bad emotions” (David 5:55). Many people feel that when they

have bad emotions it makes them weak. Clinical it is proven that when you push your emotions

aside, the comeback emotions are stronger. David talks about how scientists title this as

“amplification” (David 8:01). Amplification is when someone with emotional struggles holds

them in longer than they need to. When someone doesn’t have the strength to step out of their
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comfort zone and get help or talk about it, it causes build up and a stronger consequence of

events.

When hearing and watching Susan give the speech, she uses an analytical structure. This

structure is perfect for her speech. It starts off with background information and she tells her

story of how she is here, why she does this, and what we can learn from this. She then gives us

the main point and view on this topic. A reason is stated of why this encouragement is important.

It also talks about how her own story has grown from this. Once she talks about the main points,

she discusses what each outcome looks like. David finds pride in her structure as she uses her

body language to flow with her stories and to give a more visual effect to her speech.

Along with her structure, she uses strong and creative language/diction in order to drag

the listener in even more. By using words such as: resilience, correspondence, inevitable &

apartheid, and inadvertently. Many words were used but these are the ones that stuck out when

she was speaking. Starting with resilience, she used this in the sense to explain how if we have

that emotional connection and we are confident then all “we need are greater levels of emotional

agility for true resilience and thriving.” Confidence is key in making a relationship with your bad

emotions.

Along with true resilience, you get the “inevitable fall of apartheid it is that rigid denial

doesn't work”. (David 7:24) The words used here are from South Africa that help to put

emphasis on the effects of rigid denial. When you deny that there is a problem with something

you aren’t taking care of it. You are just pushing it to the side in hopes that it will take care of

itself. The reason South Africa is important in this conversation is because the speaker grew up

here. Growing up here gave her experiences of what rigid denial can cause and do to a

civilization.
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When growing up in South Africa, Susan foresaw the divide of the denial and its

consequences. Susan talked about denial. She discusses its early affect on her and uses it as a

connection to her studies today. She said, “To denial. It's denial that makes 50 years of racist

legislation possible while people convince themselves that they are doing nothing wrong. And

yet, I first learned of the destructive power of denial at a personal level, before I understood what

it was doing to the country of my birth.” (David 1:14) This example helps to foreshadow her

main point in her speech. It also allowed her to use creative wording further in her speech. The

compelling stories and background information made the speech complete and sparked an

interest in the audience.

David used another foreign word to explain the beauty of her culture. Denial is a part of

her culture but she also highlighted the positives in it. The word ​sawubona​ in Zulu language

means​, "I see you, and by seeing you, I bring you into being." (David 0:11) This also helped to

foreshadow the method of seeing yourself. When you integrate these words into society, you are

allowing a world of self empowerment. David used her language to show that there is beauty and

hardship in many aspects of life.

with David being able to include strong diction, structure, logos, and even pathos. She

was able to deliver a strong message. She gave a persuasive speech. This speech was persuasive

in a way for people to take advantage of their mental health. Her main point across the board was

to be able to inspire people to see themselves. When seeing yourself, you accept the mental side

of yourself. You strive to see better goals. When you see better goals you are more likely to

accept a mentality that promotes all emotions are valuable. Denial is not. Denial is only seen as a

setback and causes greater back strides in human mental health.

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Works Cited

David, Susan. “Transcript of ‘The Gift and Power of Emotional Courage.’” ​TED,​ TED

Conference LLC, Nov. 2017,

www.ted.com/talks/susan_david_the_gift_and_power_of_emotional_courage/trans

cript.