Intention

Giridharadas has a very clear intention

In his TED talk “A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided”, Anand Giridharadas has a very clear intention: He wants Americans to take action and prevent the country from splitting in two due to growing inequality. Only then can the US become one nation again where everyone has the chance to become someone and live out their personal American Dream.

Traditionally, there are three main intentions: to inform, to entertain, and to persuade. Giridharadas takes us through all three. He spends the majority of his talk informing his audience about the problem of growing inequality in the US while entertaining them with the touching and highly dramatic story of Stroman and Bhuiyan. He then spends the final part delivering his message and trying to persuade his audience to take action and help solve this problem of society.

The speaker addresses his audience directly, saying that they are part of the problem as well as the solution. His audience (and everyone watching TED talks) is likely to belong to the more privileged part of the US who believes in the American Dream because they have good lives. The speaker appeals to their sense of responsibility and morality to make them take action: “The moral challenge of my generation, I believe, is to reacquaint these two Americas [...] It is a moral c...