Sadat and Pearson Extended Response By: Lauren
For a speech to be effective it must address the context and audience carefully, to overall successfully sustain a strong argument and purpose. Sadat’s”Statement to the Knesset” spoken in 1977 clearly shows a deep understanding to his politically intellectual audience through a thorough exordium to explain his purposes of bringing peace based on justice to Israel and Egypt, as well as additionally touching on the themes of political and religious unity as well as presenting the injustices of the past that have hindered this need for peace and reconciliation. Similarly, Faith Bandler’s speech, “Faith, Hope and Reconciliation” spoken in 1999 at the Reconciliation Convention in Wollongong, shares similar values of unity, equality and peace, where an appeal to pathos is utilized to appeal to her audience and to overall present her argument that activism should be maintained in the future and the need to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in order to revive hope. Bandler uses her personal and historical context to familiarize with her audience, overall addressing her context and audience carefully. Ultimately, both speeches successfully address their similar type of audience in differing contexts, giving an effective speech with meaning and purpose.
In both speeches, the reference of context is of major significance in creating a successful and effective address to the audience with meaning and purpose. Sadat’s “Statement to the Knesset” was spoken in response to an invitation from the Jewish parliament which juxtaposes to the extraordinary context of the speech and Sadat’s own personal situation with the country of Israel. Sadat had been involved in many disputes with Israel, including the Six Day War against the country in 1967 as well as being responsible four years previous for initiating war on Egypt. By addressing the Knesset, Sadat was in danger of assassination both in Israel and at home in Egypt as he was contravening Arab policy of refusing to deal publically with the Jewish state which was established in 1948. To reflect this historical and political context, Sadat opened in an emphatically religious way with an Islamic tone by stating “In the name of God, the Gracious and the merciful” before he even addresses his audience, to present a sense of religious unity among his audience. This inclusion of all religions is also supported when Sadat says “we all Muslims, Christians and Jews worship God” creating a notion of inclusiveness and appealing to pathos to relate to his diverse audience. As well as this, Sadat establishes his purpose of peace based on justice and national unity through a detailed exordium which justifies his reasoning for speaking in Israel, which is “ to shape a new life, to establish peace” among Israeli and Arab citizens, reflecting the kairos of the speech, overall conveying the context. Here Sadat is presented as a religious envoy and through an appeal to logos and pathos a sense of trust is built between him and his audience, therefore already presenting an effective speech. Similarly, Bandler’s historical and personal context is addressed in her speech, “Faith, Hope and Reconciliation”, as she appeals to ethos and relates herself to her multicultural audience at the convention when she states “I was once here before”, where her personal hardship is referred to when she was an activist. Bandler is 79 years old and is at the end of her activism career after 50 years, so her colonial experience with the issues of reconciliation and unity are conveyed through a mournful tone and emotive diction in her exordium where she says the “terrible utterances” and “terrible tragedy” of “those who sponsored racism” made her feel “a little sadness”. The anaphora of “terrible” is used to highlight the injustices of the past and to allow the audience to sympathise to the hardships that were faced. Bandler continues to establish her argument in the former half of her speech to her audience, by saying that “there are decent people out there” with “different cultures, different political beliefs” but “know there is a need to heal the wounds of the past”. Here the repetition of “different” is used to relate to her diverse context and audience, and coupled with positive diction and an appeal to ethos, an effective speech is forming due to Bandler’s careful address to context and audience. Therefore, through careful consideration of audience and context each composer successfully allows for their speech to be effective.
