Analysis
This analysis of Malala Yousafzai's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech is inspired by the rhetorical pentagram model.
The topics of the speech are Yousafzai’s personal story, inequality in the field of education, and children's rights in general.
The speaker is Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani human rights activist who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, and who received the Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy efforts for girls’ education.
The immediate audience of the speech consists of members of the Norwegian royal family and of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and many others. In particular, Yousafzai addresses her supporters, her parents, and her teachers, her Nobel co-winner Kailash Satyarthi, her friends who survived a Taliban attack alongside her, a group of girls she has met during her Malala Fund campaign, and the critics of education for all children, as well as world leaders.
Yousafzai uses various language tools to achieve her intentions. She uses evocative words related to the injustices faced by children around the world while she appeals to the audience’s emotions, trust, and reason.
The circumstances of the speech include Malala Yousafzai receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, the presence of the Taliban in Pakistan, and the murder attempt on Malala Yousafzai by the Taliban. The speech also refers to the global context in which children (especially girls) face violence and injustice and are denied an education.
The speaker’s intentions are, broadly, to draw the audience’s attention to the many children (especially girls) who do not have equal access to education, and to launch a call to action for this situation to end.
You can read the full analysis of the speech in the next pages.