The speech:

BULLYING HAS TO END

In my years as a student, I have witnessed many episodes of bullying. Usually, a

powerless individual will be beaten by not only one person, but a group of people, the
ruthless group of people that will continue to terrorize the victim both physically and
mentally on a daily basis until he or she has to switch schools or, for whatever reason,
does not encounter the bullies again. And do you know what the worst part is? There is
no one, nobody, or anyone who will dare to stand up against those cruel people. There
will be no Spider-man to save those poor people in the world we are living in. That’s
why my friends, I’m telling you it is time we put an end to this bullying problem.

However, in order to resolve the issue, we must comprehend its source. Many people
believe that bullying just simply means physically striking, hitting, and abusing someone.
Bullying in fact consists of many types ranging from physical, verbal, social, and even
cyberbullying. Bullying is characterized as threats, insults, humiliation, intimidation, or
spreading rumors and lies. Often, bullying makes people feel powered, dominant, and
satisfied. Age, disability, nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any
other personal attribute and passion are possible reasons a person is bullied. But I’m
telling you, every person from every country from every culture from every home is born
with unique characteristics and that is what makes us human. I can’t express enough
the pain every time I see a person getting attacked for nonsense reasons such as he or
she has a different complexion, a different gender, or a different hobby. The flood of
tears, the bright crimson blood, the bullies' gleeful laughing, the victims’ desperate cries,
they suffer the agony in vain. Isn’t that heartbreaking? At this point, you may think that
the bullies are nothing but evil individuals. Or are they really? In fact, according to a
recent study by Ditch the Label, people bully because they suffer from stress and
trauma. People bully because they hate themselves and crave attention from others.
And people bully because they were also bullied by others. That is why bullying leads to
pain, pain to anger, and anger to bullying again. It is like an inescapable loop.

Bullying is a time bomb. No, it's not an exaggeration to consider bullying a crime with
unforeseen lethal consequences. Such an act as cyberbullying, simply as talking shame
about someone on social media, particularly their appearance, can even lead to the
suicide of the victims, not to mention the physical damage themselves. People
underestimate the power of words. If fists do damage to the physical body, then words
scatter terror to the minds. The pain will traumatize and haunt the victims for the rest of
their lives. It is only a matter of time until the victims choose death as their escape, or
become the villain themselves and make other innocents go through their same
sufferings. The circle of crime, therefore, continues on and on eternally. And not only do
the victims have to suffer, but the bullies will also live in regret if they are the causes of
the victims’ death. Eventually, pain is the only thing that is left if bullying is not stopped.

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Before this disease gets any worse, we must take action. Teachers must be aware of
bullying situations in their schools and take the appropriate responses. Parents must
engage in open-minded talks with their children and listen to their stories. And for young
people like us, we must stand up for our friends and protect the people who are being
bullied. Some people might say things like “What did you do to cause it?”, “Why didn’t
you fight back?”, or “You are just too sensitive”. No, these are just victim-blaming
assumptions. Let me assure you, it was never, it is never, and it will never be the
victim’s fault. The bullies are the only ones responsible for their crimes. But, we must
never think that a bully must get a “taste of their own medicine” as this will make us no
better than them. This toxic attitude will only keep the circle of bullying rolling. Although
there is no denying that it was their fault for bullying others, revenge is never a good
option. Instead, we have to talk to the bullies, teach them knowledge, show them that
there are greater things than violence, and show them that this world must be founded
on peace and love. And finally, if there is someone out there in the audience that
happens to be a bully that wants to change, which I believe there is, take my advice:
Start with a simple “Sorry”. Try putting yourself into the victims’ shoes and imagine how
you would feel. That is a small step for you, but a huge jump for society.

Remember, bullying is wrong under all circumstances. Bully someone because it makes
you feel satisfied and dominant is wrong. Bully someone because you hate or envy their
life is wrong. Bully someone because you are also bullied by others is wrong. That is
terrible, it is heartbreaking, and nobody should be treated that way in this world.
Together, we can fix this. Together, we can bring peace. Together, we can build a safer
world filled with love and care for both the victims and the bullies so nobody has to
suffer from bullying ever again.

Speech Analysis:

As implied by the title, the purpose of the speech is to demonstrate the true nature and
negative impacts of bullying and therefore urge that it stop. While the majority of people
agree that bullying is bad, many do not comprehend how lethal it may be, resulting in
bullying still being an overlooked act in today's society. Hence, a significant amount of
rhetorical devices, metaphors, and an ethical framework are included in this speech in
order to convey the ideology of "Bullying has to end" in a straightforward manner.

The speech starts with a description of the act of bullying. In this description, the first
rhetorical device I utilized is amplification, which is one used for expanding and
enhancing an argument, explanation, or description in any manner (Nordquist, 2019).
Specifically, I repeated the phrase “the group of people” but added more details to it as
in “...a group of people, the ruthless group of people that will continue to terrorize …
again.” The significance of bullying's brutality, therefore, is emphasized and the
audience's emotional reaction is stimulated. Following that, I raise the audience's
concerns by proposing a hypophora. In using hypophora, the question “And do you
know what the worst part is?” is posed in order to catch attention as the audience’s

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curiosity is stimulated by hearing it, and then I attempt to answer it to suggest
information that the hearers might not think of (Silva Rhetoricae, 2006). In the answer, a
tricolon, a rhetorical term consisting of three parallel sentences, phrases, or words that
occur in rapid succession without disruption (Literary Devices, 2016b), is used to
emphasize the painful position of the victims who are left to endure alone without help
and also makes it memorable for the hearers. “no one, nobody, or anyone” clearly has
its effects on reminding the audience for the next time they encounter a bullying
situation, they will empathize with the victims and therefore seek to help them.
Additionally, the allusion to “Spider-man”, a brief reference to a figure (Kidskonnect,
2017), which in this case is a friendly-neighborhood superhero whom all children admire
and look up to is taken into a demonstration. By using this image of an imaginary hero,
on one hand, I want to remind people of the cruelty of the real world where no one will
be there to save the victims, on the other hand, it is an encouragement for the audience
to believe that if they can stand up and fight for the weak, they will become the role
model, a true superhero that can help other people against bullying. As a result, with an
introduction that utilizes 4 rhetorical devices, I strongly believe that I have equipped my
audience with sufficient concerns before discussing the problem of bullying and its fatal
repercussions.

The next paragraph mainly informs the audience about the horrible nature of bullying by
providing its definitions and the reasons why a person may be bullied. In an attempt of
explaining bullying, enumeration is the chosen rhetorical device. This is the most
effective method for detailing facts and providing the listener with further information
about any story element by breaking it down into component parts (Baldwin, 2021).
Bullying, therefore, is defined as various toxic behaviors such as “threats, insults, …
rumors and lies” (Nittle, 2021) along with numerous reasons a person can be bullied as
“ Age, … attribute and passion …” (Ditch the Label, 2018). Additionally, in those
sentences explaining bullying, anaphora - a traditional rhetorical device consisting of
the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of each sentence (Charteris-Black, 2018) is
used: “Bullying… Bullying…”. This rhetorical device allows me to not only lend a rhythm
to the phrase but also to emphasize the notion of bullying and simultaneously imprint
the concept of bullying in the minds of my listeners. Using germination - "repetition of a
word or word group within a sentence" (Duarte, 2018) - of the word "every" to
emphasize that people are originally created differently and that it is wrong to hate
people based on these differences, I then make my point that I disagree with those
reasons for bullying a person. After that, I take advantage of a literary device used in
poetry, novels, and other forms of writing that use realistic portrayal and sensory appeal
to create a picture or concept in the reader's mind, namely imagery (Deguzman, 2021):
“The flood of tears, … in vain”. The brilliance of this line is that it not only precisely
captures the brutal scene of bullying via the rich red hue of blood and the streaming
tears, but it also evokes in the listener a negative feeling, agony, and, to a lesser extent,
anger for the crimes performed by the bullies. However, a story cannot be whole if just
one side is presented. Thus, a procatalepsis, in which the speaker creates opposition
to their own thesis and then quickly responds to it (Literary Devices, 2016a), is
performed via the notion that "you may think... evil people." By doing this I want to
clearly explain to the audience further information about why although the act performed

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by bullies are wrong, we still do not abandon or decline them. In the answer to the
question, anaphora is once again used but instead of repeating the noun “Bullies”, I
choose “People” because I want to emphasize that those individuals are still human. I
care about them and I want the audience to also believe that there is still humanity in
those people and therefore, implying solutions for not only the victims but for the bullies
as well. Following that, anadiplosis: “bullying leads to pain…to bullying again” - a
repetition of the last word or phrase of one clause, sentence, or line at the beginning of
the next (Britannica, 2018) is used to demonstrate a string of bad consequences that
will keep connecting and repeating like a loop, as in the simile: “It is like an inescapable
loop.” (the comparison between 2 things to describe understandings (Underwood,
2016)) if nothing is done to stop it.

In order to explain to the audience the negative impacts of bullying, I start with the
conceptual metaphor “Bullying is a time bomb”. Stibbe (2015, p,64) explains that
metaphors “use a frame from a specific, concrete and imaginable area of life to
structure how a clearly distinct area of life is conceptualised”. He further explains that
“metaphor is described as a mapping from a source domain to a target domain” (Stibbe,
2015. p.64). In this particular circumstance, the source domain “time bomb” is used to
structure the target domain “bullying”. A “time bomb” is a lethal weapon that is slowly
awaiting detonation and will trigger an explosion that will hurt the victims if the defuser
does not perform the procedure in the given limited time. With trigger words such as
“detonation, explosion, and hurt”, the metaphorical reasoning, therefore, leads to the
conclusion that frames inside the minds of the audiences a story, a perspective that
“bullying” is also a lethal act that is happening and if not solved in time, it will bring
collateral damage such as depression or worse, suicides, and deaths to the victims like
a real “time bomb”. This metaphor gives the audience a first introduction to how bad
bullying can become and also encourages them to stand up and fight against bullying.
Hence, I use a second metaphor, which is this time more explicit, by directly comparing
"bullying" to "disease". Simpler than a conceptual metaphor, this is referred to as an
ordinary rhetorical metaphor - “a figure of speech that makes a comparison between
two non-similar things” (Literary Devices, 2019). This comparison describes bullying as
a disease that ravages cities, affects societies, and spreads in waves or epidemics.
Therefore, it suggests that if the disease spreads throughout the body, the individual
grows progressively worse; then, as bullying spreads across society, people's life
gradually deteriorates. Another rhetorical device that is used is assonance: “If fists do
… their lives.” By repeating the similar vowels sound in words like “minds”, “traumatize”,
and “lives”, I enhance the mood in the sentences to draw the attention of the listeners
(Literary Devices, 2017) and also with personification (which “represents abstractions
or inanimate objects with human qualities, including physical, emotional, and spiritual”
(American Rhetoric, n.d.)): “fists do damage” and “words scatter terror”, I can
emphasize the understandings of the lethal impacts of bullying and at the same time,
make it memorable for the audiences by creating an artistic style in my speech. I,
therefore, urge people to strongly believe that the crime of bullying must end due to its
horrifying effects.

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Among the different solutions for bullying, those that are applied with rhetorical devices
stand out. Through the sentences “Some people might…assumptions”, procatalepsis
is raised as an attempt to emphasize the incorrectness in thinking from a victim-blaming
perspective. Likewise, by using the tricolon “it was never, it is never, and it will never”, I
emphasize with a powerful tone to remind that people must never blame the fault on the
victims and therefore seek a proper solution. Furthermore, I also encourage people not
to treat the bullies with harshness but with emotion and care by using climax: “we have
to talk … peace and love.” By arranging the phrases in ascending order of importance
(LitCharts, n.d.), not only do I add a touch of drama and suspense to the presentation,
but the audience can also comprehend the value of love and care in turning a lost
person back on the right track. And after giving advice to the bully who wants to change,
I provide the person with an antithesis, which is a contrast of thoughts in a parallel form
(MasterClass, 2021): “That is a small step for you, but a huge jump for society.” Inspired
by a famous antithesis from Neil Armstrong (1969): “That’s one small step for a man,
one giant leap for mankind.” I am confident that the bully would comprehend and
recognize that his minor sacrifice, as we all know that saying "sorry" is not a simple
task, will not only benefit him but also contribute to the larger welfare of society and the
globe. In an attempt to reclaim my thesis of the speech, “Bullying has to end”, by
utilizing symploce - “the repetition of words or phrases at both the beginning and end of
successive clauses or verses” (Nordquist, 2018). The sentence: “Bully someone …
others is wrong.” in addition to summarizing and re-emphasizing all previously
discussed points, this line also helps to imbed them in the consciousness of the
audience. Finally, I utilize anaphora one last time to emphasize the importance that the
audiences, the victims, and the bullies must come “together”. The fundamental principle
of problem-solving is that everyone must join, believe, and endure challenges
"together." Only then will the issue be resolved.

Generally, this speech can be seen as adopting the ethical framework of care, in
which humans are essentially interdependent and interrelated. Although Noddings
(1984, cited in Slote, 2007, p. 10) believes that the ethics of care is particularly feminine,
she argues that men are also capable and motivated to use the terms. Slote (2007) also
explains that Noddings (1984) views care ethics as demanding or suggesting that
people behave caringly, which entails that we act righteously or permissibly if our acts
show or demonstrate a caring attitude or motivation toward others. Specifically, Tronto
(2005) points out 5 ethical qualities of care, 3 of which are evident in this speech:
“attentiveness”, “responsibility”, and “Plurality, communication, trust and respect;
solidarity — caring with”. To clarify, rather than making judgments on who is right or
wrong, guilty or exonerated, this ethics of care requires understanding the viewpoints of
others and working together to find solutions that preserve the group's harmony (Tronto,
2005). In the context of the speech, the “attentiveness” quality, which is defined by
Tronto (2005) as the awareness of others’ problems for a response, is shown through
the identification of the bullying act, which displays the hardship the victims have to go
through. Additionally, the author of the speech also recognizes the problems that the
bullies have to face in order to resolve the best solutions for both sides. As a result, both
perspectives are taken into consideration and the author expresses and encourages
empathy from the audience rather than judgments or hatred. Hence, the author

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demands “responsibility” from the teachers, the parents, and the young generations to
acknowledge the issue and stop the crime by talking, listening, and sharing love. And
finally, the “plurality” and “solidarity” quality are demonstrated significantly in the last
paragraph that proposes the idea of union Tronto (2005), that people must come
“together”, and take seriously the nature of caring needs in society through acts such
as “bring peace”, “a safer world filled with love and care”, “nobody has to suffer from
bullying ever again.”, especially empathized through the repetition of the word
“together”. In conclusion, I strongly believe that every problem has a peaceful
resolution. Although it is undeniable that bullies commit heinous crimes against their
victims, hate and retaliation are never good solutions. Love, caring, and emotion will
thus always persuade a person, even the most resistant. For this reason, there is no
greater framework for this speech than the ethics of care.

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