Blog Post #22 - Paper 1

The text “Freedom from fear” by Aung San Suu Kyi is a political speech focusing on the issue of human rights in Burma, as there was a civil war taking place around the time this speech came out. This brings me to the thought that Aung San Suu Kyi was trying to bring the country together as a whole. With so close a relationship between fear and corruption there is little wonder why a society where fear is common in all forms becomes deeply entrenched into the culture.

The meaning behind Aung San Suu Kyi’s freedom from fear speech is to educate the listeners and to tell them that having a fear of losing power will corrupt those who apply it regularly in their life and the fear of the “curse” of power corrupts those who are subject to it regularly. The main audience this speech is targeting is the people who agree with and support human rights development. This extract is used to connect with the emotions of a variety of audiences around the world. Throughout her speech, she creates a sense of grace, fear and fearlessness, humiliation and peace, giving voice to the unseen forces that shape the oppressors and the oppressed, rather than relying on descriptions of the physical actions and surroundings of that oppression. This helps underscore her point that changes in society must include "revolutions of the spirit," as well as the physical overthrow of individuals and offices. The speech was used to inform people of human rights and what is morally correct, educate them on their rights, persuade them to follow her ways and to follow a role model and to express her opinion on the matter.

Many people think of fear as a feeling of hate, or guilt some even see it as a sign of love. Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi felt otherwise and in her famous speech "Freedom from Fear" in 1990, she pointed out that people who badly mistreat others are doing it because of a fear. She says, "It is not power that ruins, but fear. Fear of losing power ruins those who hold it and fear of the disease/punishment of power ruins those who are subject to it." Having been the only daughter of Aung San, she knew well. It's no mistake that her voice was so powerful causing haters to want it to be silenced. Later, when the military called a general election in 1990 and abolished the results, she was placed under house arrest for 15 years, making her one of the world's longest standing political prisoners. Eleven years after Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded her Nobel Peace Prize, she travelled to Norway to receive it in person and to deliver her acceptance speech. This trip was the first time she had left Burma in over 20 years.

Throughout the speech, she is illustrating three different tones, each for a separate purpose. Firstly, she consistently uses a formal tone and she does this by not using colloquialism and non-standard diction throughout the speech, making her sound more scholarly. By doing this, she makes the audience feel significant without using “you” or any first-person pronouns. This is her use of ethos, as she is presenting herself as being a well-educated and trustworthy person to her audience. This allows her to express her opinion more effectively and vivid in an accurate manner. Secondly, she has a nervous tone, creating a heartening mood with the audience when she talks about dictatorship and the governmental system in Burma. She shows this tone using repetition at the end of the speech, which is when she repeats the word “fear.” Words such as torture, death, isolation and failure are associated with fear, and create a great sense of grief towards the people who are being denied basic human rights. Finally, she also uses a motivational tone to contrast with her anxious tone which is integrated into the speech as another way of saying that for every problem there is a reason behind it. In each paragraph of the speech, she talks about heart-breaking issues to then become more courageous by saying that she can make Burma a more civilized and free from want and fear. It is important to have these different tones to show more emotional appeal and to gain credibility, particularly in a political speech.

Furthermore, Suu Kyi has successfully conveyed her opinion by using a specific tone for a specific target audience, which is shown by the way the speech is organized. She initially talks about the quintessential revolution and the dictator’s state of mind. She also gives her opinion towards it all and how she has chosen to support democracy to later introduce the concepts of truth, justice and compassion. Suu Kyi created a mood which then makes the audience go from feeling ‘underestimated’ to ‘motivated to change.’

Suu Kyi addressed her opinion to the public by structurally organizing her speech in a way that effectively gains the audience’s attention first and then she can make them feel motivated to change. Using fear, Aung Sang Suu Kyi is creating repetition throughout the entire speech which is both a structural choice of hers to engage with her audience but it is also a literary device which is used to reinforce a key idea. An example of repetition in her speech is “Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure.”

The overall structure of the speech is quite simplistic, as the author has simply created paragraphs, with little to imagine. The author has included one single sentence paragraph, which either increases emphasis on the point she is giving at that point or she is simply proud of that sentence as the single sentence paragraph in the extract is poetic. In addition, the title “freedom from fear” is alliterative, which has been used to add artistic style to a speech, so that people don’t forget it as the title was boring, or they don’t listen/watch it as they aren’t attracted to the speech through its title.

Finally, this extract was created to focus on human rights in Burma, and what they are as there was a civil war taking place around the time. As well as this, Aung San Suu Kyi was trying to create unity within the country to try and break down the close relationship between fear and corruption as it has become deeply entrenched into the culture, which she is against majorly.