We are Virginia Tech. Nikki Giovanni Payton Bryant 3rd block

Historical background Nikki Giovanni gave the speech “We are Virginia Tech.” as the closing remarks at a memorial ceremony honoring the Virginia Tech. shooting victims. The Virginia Tech. massacre took place on April 16, 2007. In two separate attacks, about two hours apart, the perpetrator killed 32 people and wounded 25 others before committing suicide.

Appeal to Emotion (ex.) We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it. No one deserves a tragedy. She is saying that the shooting did not have to happen, they do not know what they did to deserve it, the people who were killed got killed for no reason.

Allusion/ Analogy (ex.) But neither does the child in Africa dying of AIDS; neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army; neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water; neither does a Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized.

Allusion/ Analogy continued She is using these examples to compare to other tragedies that have no reason for happening.

Repetition (ex.) We are Virginia Tech. We will prevail. She repeats these phrases to show that they will stand together, and get through the tragedy.

Parallelism (ex.) We are Virginia Tech. We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. We are not moving on; we are embracing our mourning. We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly; We are brave enough to bend to cry And sad enough to know we must laugh again. Even though they are hurting and are in mourning they are strong enough to get through the tragedy.

Reaction I believe the speech is effective because Nikki Giovanni brings the emotions out of it by using the examples of other tragedies to compare to the shooting. She makes this piece inspirational, it shows people that no matter what tragedy you are faced with, you can get through it. I hope my audience will realize that anything can happen.

Sources http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/nikkigiovannivatechmemorial.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre