Rhetorical Analysis

Thibault de Vignemont
Professor Ferrara
Intro Rhetoric and Composition
11 November 2020
Brene Brown’s TED Talk “The Power of Vulnerability”
No one wants to admit they are imperfect. However, it might just be the answer to
personal happiness. How would people change their behavior and their outlook on life if they
believed that being vulnerable was the same as being strong? That’s the question Brene Brown
asks her audience in her TED talk “The Power of vulnerability.” In her talk, Brown is addressing
a live audience of people presumably interested in psychology, but her message is intended to be
generalized enough that anyone watching the video presentation will be able to follow her points.
Part of the reason that Brown’s video is so accessible is that Brown calls herself a
“research-storyteller.” That is an apt title because she expertly explains her research through an
easy to understand storytelling format, one that is full of colloquialisms and humor, creating a
tone that belies her more serious message. This style of presentation allows Brown to use ethos
in the form of personal stories, pathos in the form of humor, and logos in the form of research
evidence.
Brown’s research into the sense of “worthiness” some people feel led her to see that
people who have a sense of “worthiness” feel worthy, not because they are perfect, but because
they accept the imperfections within themselves. These people are compassionate with
themselves about their own faults, and by doing that, they are capable of being more
compassionate to others. This then allows them to form more meaningful connections with
others and have a greater sense of love and belonging. Brown’s TED talk was inspired by her
own desire to better understand her own vulnerabilities as a social worker. She had grown up,
like most people, believing that there was a correct way of responding to discomfort: ignoring it.
But, as a social worker, she often found herself taking on some of the discomfort of her patients.
How then to rectify the two ideas; using empathy to connect with patients and ignoring the
feelings of discomfort that empathy they brought up?
Brown is able to convey her ideas to her audience, not by citing incomprehensible,
professional sounding statistics, but by exposing her own vulnerability through a series of
personal anecdotes. Brown makes a series of self-deprecating remarks in her storytelling,
showing that she possesses many of the vulnerabilities the people in her research study have. At
one point Brown says “And you know how I feel about vulnerability. I hate vulnerability.” This
shows that she definitely understands the material she is speaking about on a personal level. She
speaks about insights that came from her own therapy, a technique that makes her seem both
accessible and trustworthy as she clearly relates to feelings of vulnerability. Even the fact that
she says “‘you’ know how I feel” allows her personal anecdote to create a personal connection
with her audience.
Because many of her stories are funny, Brown is able to have her audience connect with
her on an emotional level, using pathos to make her speech even more persuasive. She tells a
story about how she views the world and how it connects with her field of study “I have a
bachelor's and a master's in social work, and I was getting my Ph.D. in social work, so my entire
academic career was surrounded by people who kind of believed in the ‘life's messy, love it.’
And I'm more of the, "life's messy, clean it up, organize it and put it into a bento box.” This kind
of humor allows the audience to relate to the information she is presenting in a way that a more
academic approach wouldn’t. She even jokes about how upset she got trying to make sense of
her research by saying “ This led to a little breakdown.” It is clear to the audience that she is
saying this for comic effect, even though she did, in fact, end up seeing a therapist. In this case,
the humor allows the audience to feel the tension relief of a laugh instead of simply feeling upset
that Brown suffered through a mental crisis. Also, this admission of imperfection is her acting
out the entire point of her talk: acknowledging the imperfection has made her stronger. This use
of pathos is a powerful way to allow the audience to connect with Brown and create a bond of
trust, allowing those watching her speech to better accept her message.
Brown’s background is in research, and throughout her speech she adds logos in the form
of facts to make her points even stronger. At one point in her speech she states that Americans
“are the most in-debt, the most obsessive, and the most addicted and medicated adult cohort in
US history.” This might be a hard thing for the audience to hear, but this factual evidence helps
to ground her ideas, making them universal, and not just personal. She makes a point of saying
that she did her research for six years, reviewing “Thousands of stories, hundreds of long
interviews, focus groups. At one point, people were sending me journal pages and sending me
their stories -- thousands of pieces of data in six years.” This kind of insertion of logos shows
that she has the data to back up her claims. While her tone might be light and funny, the logos
proves that she is a serious researcher whose ideas should be trusted.
Brene Brown’s TED talk on the strength of vulnerability is extremely persuasive because
she incorporates ethos, pathos and logos into her arguments. It would have been easy for Brown
to treat her audience as professional peers, using the argon of her profession. Instead, she
grounds her ideas in everyday language, making her speech professional, but accessible. Her use
of ethos proves that she understands her subject matter, making her a reliable source of
information. Her use of pathos in the form of humor creates a more intimate bond with the
audience, making them more receptive to her ideas. Her use of logos proves her mastery of the
material, making her trustworthy. Speaking about the power of vulnerability in such a vulnerable
way drives home Brown’s points better than dry facts ever could. One can only hop that her own
sense of “worthiness” is secure because she proved she was worth watching.

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Thibault de Vignemont

Intro Rhetoric and Composition

Brene Brown’s TED Talk “The Power of Vulnerability”

feelings of discomfort that empathy they brought up?

personal anecdotes. Brown makes a series of self-deprecating remarks in her storytelling,

with her audience.

proves that she is a serious researcher whose ideas should be trusted.

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