Audience:
- Literal: Mao delivered the wrote the speech and delivered it at a committee meeting for the Chinese Communist party.
- Probable: Followers of the Chinese Communist party as a general whole, since he seems to be addressing the opposition when he talks about taking criticisms and that dying for the Communist party is only whats morally right. The actual audience who he delivered this to would have already felt this way.
Context:
- An address commemorating the death of a PLA soldier who died in a kiln collapse and had participated in the Long March
- September 8, 1944
- Chinese Communist Party came into power October 1949 (Speech was given five years before this)
Paragraph 1:
- Purpose: Introducing the reason for the speech- the soldier- and an introduction to the party.
- Appeals: ETHOS! Even before talking about the deceased soldier, which was the whole point (it was a commemoration), he says the CCP is "wholly dedicated to the liberation of the people and work entirely in the people's interests". He is pressing the issue that the CCP is in the best interest of the people and they want what is best for the people. Would there have been some question in the objective of the CCP as a reason for him to say this?
Paragraph 2:
- Purpose: To state the major claim of his piece: "All men must die, but death can vary in its significance."
- Appeals: PATHOS! His use of metaphors and emotionally loaded diction makes it clear Mao is trying to appeal to the readers on an emotional appeal. "To die for the people is weightier than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and die for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather." He uses the weight metaphor in his favor to convince the reader that the Communist party is not only the right way to go, but it is a deep honor to die for the CCP. The warrant here is that the CCPis the way to go.
- Technique: the metaphor of weight that he takes from Szuma Chien and twists to be relevant to the CCP.
- Effectiveness: Pretty effective. This is mild compared to what he has yet to say, so this is his way of building up to the heavier parts of his claim. This gives the audience a reason to want to listen to him (Well, if to die for the CCP is how one dies meaningfully, who wouldn't want to listen to him?)
Paragraph 3:
- Purpose: To establish the CCP's ethos. Mao is saying they are welcome to criticisms of their efforts, even coming from non Communists, and that they are willing to hear out anyone who has any idea that can benefit the Chinese people.
- We have shortcomings, but so does everyone else. We are willing to admit out mistakes, but everyone else makes mistakes too.
- Appeals: Ethos. If were wrong, then we will admit it, but everyone is wrong all the time. All we want is to benefit the people, we will even take criticism from non Communists, ex. we have adopted Ting-Ming's ideas.
- Effectiveness: Pretty convincing. The CCP is open for suggestions and opinions.
Paragraph 4 part 1:
- Purpose: The Chinese have "joined together for a common revolutionary effort" Warrant: the CCP
- Mao is calling for ALL the Chinese population to join his Communist movement: "to liberate the nation more are needed" Warrant: The CCP is going to liberate the nation
- Appeals: Logos- population numbers, we need more to make this possible
Part 2
- Appeal shift to heavy ethos and pathos starting with "In times of difficulty..."
- Purpose: To twist the suffering and death of the Chinese people as a result of the revolution into a positive situation
- Mao uses morals to bring support to his cause- "it is our duty" to save the Chinese people from their "suffering"
- Brings back his major claim of death: "Because we have the interests of the people and the sufferings of the great majority at heart, and when we die for the people it is a worthy death." This is really Mao stating the warrant to his earlier claim that dying for the CCP is the ultimate honor and to die a death fighting for the CCP is to die a meaningful death. This gives his reasoning for the claim- because they party is for the benefit of the people, to die for it is an honor.
- Mao is also showing the ethos of the military aspect by saying that even though to die for them would be honorable, our soldiers look out for the lives of one another and "love and help each other". He is painting the picture that the CCP is a morally right and benevolent organization.
- Diction: "we", "struggle" "sacrifice" "death"= "bright future"
- Effective in building the ethos of the CCP- Reasserts that they have the value of the people in mind, they realize people are going to die, their soldiers have, in a sense, a family attitude toward each other
Paragraph 5:
- Appeal: heavy pathos
- Techniques: Hyperbole? He is saying that every time anyone who is in support of the party dies, that they need to be honored with a memorial meeting in their village. A little excessive? Does he really mean this?
- This is sort of an announcement as he is giving directions of something that should now be happening, very ordering tone.
- Warrant in the last sentence: To unite the people, we need to mourn our dead. Death will bring us closer together.
- Effectiveness: Very effective. Takes all the accumulative bits supporting his major claim at the beginning and qualifies and reasserts them into a concise and directing conclusion.
General Evaluation: Mao is really relying on his audiences pathos and his own claims on his ethos to sway the listeners. He uses intimidation through his ethos to create a sense of "wow, I should really support the CCP because they have me in mind and they really know what they're doing. Also what they're doing is morally correct." The piece is completely void of logos. There are very few, if any, rhetorical devices besides the metaphor in the second paragraph. Similar to Geobbels in that he has no logical backing for what he is saying and is really relying on his ethos to make his point seem correct.
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