Javohn Arrington
Professor Robinson
ENG 1030-51
15 October 2021
E2 Rough Draft
Have you ever felt like you cannot be yourself because of the circumstances that are
placed around you? How often do you take your negative ways of living and turn it into
something positive? A lot of times in society, people tend to look at the bad things that happen to
them in life, and they get discouraged. A motivational spokesman known as Inky Johnson, has a
well-known speech that is titled as “You Are Greater Than Your Circumstances.” This
significant speech was done on April 2nd, 2021. Throughout this speech, the speaker seeks to
inspire and motivate a crowd that may be going through things in life that may be tough to
handle. Just like any affective speech, Inky Johnson uses many different rhetorical devices to
make his audience engage in the things that he is saying. Ultimately, the speech “You Are
Greater Than Your Circumstances” by “Inky Johnson,” is a powerful example of rhetoric
because of the speaker’s use of pathos, repetition, tone, and imagery throughout his speech.
In “You Are Greater Than Your Circumstances” spoken by “Inky Johnson,” the speaker
shows a lot of pathos throughout his speech. By doing this, the audience is able to grasp the true
meaning behind what he is saying due to his emotion behind his words. “I came from a place
where I watched my mother scrape up change and dollars to get me a pair of cleats,” (Inky
Johnson). In this very moment of the speech, Johnson begins to go back and reminisce his life as
he once lived it growing up. As he does this, he shows must passion and emotion behind the way
he speaks about it. Not only does Inky Johnson have a great message for his audience, the love
he has for what he does stands out. Without the emotion behind his words, the audience may
begin to get bored if they realize that there is no type of emotion in his actions. By including
pathos into his speech, Inky Johnson was able to improve his speech just by simply showing
emotion in the way he went about speaking to the audience.
Another rhetorical device that Inky Johnson displayed was the use of repetition. His
message throughout the speech is that anyone is strong enough to overcome the circumstances
that they are placed in. To ultimately get this message across, he uses many different ways to do
so. By using repetition, Johnson is able to say the same things to get his point across; however,
he is able to say them in many different ways. In the speech, Inky Johnson explains many
situations where the circumstances he was placed in were very unfortunate. He explains each of
these scenarios and how he was ultimately able to overcome them. Although these situations
may be different from one another, they all share the same purpose in the speech. By giving
different examples of tragic moments in life, Inky Johnson is able to reach multiple different
groups of the audience and he is still able to get his point across in different ways.
During the speech, the audience is able to understand how important something is based
off of the demeanor of the speaker’s voice. Inky Johnson uses tone affectively to demonstrate the
importance of the things he is talking about. Not only does he use this rhetorical device, he uses
it in several different ways. The tone of his voice continuously changes throughout his speech
and it plays an effective role. The audience is able to recognize how imperative something is just
based off of the way his tone shifts during the speech. One moment, the tone of his voice could
be very low and emotional; however, the next moment it could be very motivational and upbeat.
This a successful way of keeping the audience on their toes. As a participant of the crowd, they
will never know what to expect from the performer. By doing this, it changes the tempo of the
speech a numerous amount so that the audience can stay engaged at all times.
During the speech, there were various times where the audience could paint a picture of
the things that Inky Johnson was saying. Being able to have a visual on what the speaker is
saying is so crucial to an audience. This plays a huge role because not only does the crowd get to
hear the words he is saying, they also are able to paint that visual in their own head to fully
understand what it is he is saying. “I feel like I have a responsibility and an obligation. Not to be
their father, right? But to fill a void to be a positive male figure in that kid’s life as much as
possible,” (Inky Johnson). In this quote, Inky Johnson explains that he feels as if he has to be
there for the other kids on his children sports team. The reason he feels this way is because he
was once in that position. He was in a place where he did not have his father. Inky Johnson
painted that picture for the audience and they were fully able to see it. This is just one of the
examples of imagery being used as a device in this speech.