Charlie Stiver 1

Professor Rickard

English 1101

14 October 2021

“Deaf in the Military” Rhetorical Analysis

Keith Nolan was a man who had a dream. That dream was to serve in the military. There

was one problem though. He was deaf. Keith recounts his story of going to countless places to

get accepted, but he kept getting rejected. He gave up and decided to become a teacher until

one of his students told him about an ROTC program that helped Keith acquire some military

classes. He gets to the point where he can’t go any further and he feels stuck. Keith tells the

audience his experiences with the program as an odd man out and why he feels that deaf and

disabled people should be able to serve in the military. In his TED talk, Keith uses ethos, pathos,

and logos to communicate his desire for deaf and disabled people to be able to serve in the

military.

Keith uses ethos in his speech to build his credibility. He tells the audience that he is

deaf and that he had a life-long dream of being in the military. Keith has first-hand experience

with what he’s talking about. Keith says, “I tried various locations at a number of different times

trying to join but over and over again I got the same response. Sorry, you’re deaf, we cannot

accept you.” (1:28). This shows that he isn’t just talking about deaf people wanting to be in the

military, he is one of them. Towards the end of his speech, Keith tells the audience that he wrote

a research paper. This shows that Keith is a very reliable person to be talking about this subject.

It also shows that he is passionate about it because he took the time to find information to

support his claim. Keith uses ethos to show that he is credible, but he also uses emotions to

persuade the audience.

Keith utilizes pathos in his speech to sway the audience emotionally. To do this, he uses

many examples, one of them was when one of his deaf students came up to him while he was

teaching and told Keith that he wanted to go into the military, and Keith responded “Ah sorry,
Charlie Stiver 2

Professor Rickard

English 1101

14 October 2021

you can’t, you’re deaf” (1:59). At this moment, Keith realized the mistake he made. He thought

to himself, why am I trying to kill someone else’s dream if it was the same one I had? In his

research paper, Keith talks about all of his personal stories and also includes all of the other

people that he interviewed, including some of the Israeli soldiers. This evokes an emotional

response in the audience and sways them to Keith’s side. Another example of Keith using

pathos in his speech is when he talks about all of the friends that he’s made. He tells us about

his friends and the nicknames that he gave each one of them. This shows that Keith is

supported by his fellow troops and viewed as an equal. He also uses logos in his TED talk to

show his facts to support his opinion.

Keith uses logos in his speech when he’s explaining his studies about disabled Israeli

soldiers. He tells us “Did you know that in Israel they accept deaf people into the military?”

(2:20). This shows that there shouldn’t be a problem with deaf people serving in the military

because it’s already proved to be successful in a different country. Another example that Keith

uses is the work in the military. He says that “Out of all the military jobs, 80% are non-combat

positions” (7:10). This means that almost all of the jobs in the military could be done by a deaf

person successfully. In Keith’s research paper, he wrote about the statistics in the military. For

example, 80% of jobs are non-combat and the Israeli defense force accepts deaf soldiers. The

last example I found is that Keith says that when someone becomes disabled in the military,

they can come back and serve. So why can’t the military accept disabled people in the first

place? This, to Keith, seems absurd and unfair.

Keith is dedicated to his cause. He continues to fight for his and many other disabled

people that want to serve in the military. In his speech, he uses ethos, pathos, and logos to

sway the audience in favor of having deaf people serve in the military. At the end of his speech,
Charlie Stiver 3

Professor Rickard

English 1101

14 October 2021

the last compelling words he says are that the military is changing with the times and that “today

is our time, now is our turn, Hooah!” (18:20).