In his Commencement Address, Because We Can We Must, Bono Vox, Co-founder of DATA (Debt AIDS Trade Africa) and lead singer of U2, employs repetition, rhetorical questions, humor, and similes to persuade his audience that they can make a change using what they have been taught. Bono’s speech is full of passion and hope meant to inspire people; in this case he is speaking to a group of college graduates.
During Bono’s Commencement Address he conveys that every generation can recognize what is going on in the world that needs to be changed. He says to them, “Betraying the age means exposing its conceits, it’s foibles; it’s phony moral certitudes. It means telling the secrets of the age and facing harsher truths.” This implies that we realize that there are problems, like poverty and AIDS in Africa, and even though we have the money to change it we choose not to do anything about it. But that is not enough. He challenges them to realize to make change happen. In Because We Can We Must Bono adopts an informal and colloquial tone to help set the mood and establish a relationship with an audience of young adults. He does this by stating, “I read the declaration of Independence and I’ve read the Constitution of the United Sates, and they are some liner notes, dude.” Throughout the speech Bono introduces repetition to place emphasis on certain factors for example he says “We’re the first generation,” “We can be the first generation,” and “It might take a while, but we can be the first generation that says no to stupid poverty.” Bono does this to illustrate the idea that people can make a change, that people can actually put an end to poverty in Africa, it might be expensive but it is possible. The repetition of how America is an idea is also a tremendous point in his speech. When Bono says “…and I love America because America is not just a country, it’s an idea. You see my country, Ireland, is a great country, but it’s not an idea. America is an idea, but it’s an idea that brings with it some baggage, like power brings responsibility.” he is giving people hope and equality and also the idea that anything is possible. Bono also inserts similes into his Commencement Address. He asserts his view on poverty and AIDS in Africa by saying “Wishing for the end to AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa is like wishing gravity didn’t make things so damn heavy.” This is an extremely effective simile that helps the audience grasp what Bono wishes to convey. Bono sets out to persuade his audience that they can make a change. He writes using rhetorical questions, repetition, and similes to convince the audience that change is possible and tries to encourage them to do something about the problems happening in the world. Providing the audience with personal information about his past about where he grew up and what he did as a kid helped them relate to him and trust him. Through repetition, rhetorical questions, and similes Bono persuades an audience of graduating UPENN students that they can make a change in the world. He declared that it was time for them to take action, time for them to use everything they were taught.