Summary

Edward Kennedy's brother, Robert, died at age 36 in 1968. Edward made a speech at his funeral in New York in an attempt to leave the audience with a lasting positive impression of his brother.

Logos

Edward heavily relies on quotes from Robert’s speeches to advance his mission in making the audience remember Robert as an impactful man.

Rather than simply tell people how amazing his brother was, Edward uses Robert’s speech to South African students regarding the need for civil rights to all in order (1966) to show the audience how intelligent and impactful Robert was.

• The long quote shows his brother at his best, subtly giving the audience a biased perspective on Robert.

This strategy provides him with the ability to persuade the audience to view his brother in a positive light through logic and without being too forceful.

If he had relied solely on his own word, it would have been less effective because the audience knows that he is biased and therefore may not have believed everything he said.

“‘Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.’”

• Edward ends his eulogy with another quote from Robert to leave the audience with impactful words from Robert himself rather than from a secondary source to instill a positive perspective on Robert

Pathos

In the beginning of the speech, rather than use the strategy of quotation, Edward does actually tell the audience what a loving man Robert was. This is used to precede the evidence of this claim that Edward sprinkles throughout the story and to make those at the funeral feel positive emotions about Robert.

After Edward quotes his brother's speech to South Africa, he concludes with these words,

"This is the way he lived. This is what he leaves us."

• After such a long excerpt he uses short, powerful statements to keep the audience’s attention as well as leave a lasting impression of Robert on the audience.

"'What it really all adds up to is love -- not love as it is described with such facility in popular magazines, but the kind of love that is affection and respect, order and encouragement, and support.'"

• The topic of the quote, love, is sure to incite emotions in those listening to his speech as well as work to show the people that his brother was caring and well-spoken.

Ethos

Who could be more qualified than family?

• Edward's title alone serves as an appeal to ethos since he was Robert's brother.

“Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, Mr. President”

• His politeness shows that he is intelligent and well spoken

“My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”

Effective words also show intelligence and poise.

The use of Robert’s own words appeals to ethos in that Edward is implying that he could not express Robert’s character in his words.