Emma González' March for Our Lives Speech: The Rhetoric of Illustrative Silence

Marjory Douglas Stoneman student Emma González, who was attending school on the day of the Parkland School Shooting, gave a powerful speech a few weeks ago. I wrote about some of her speech techniques at the time. The speech was excellent in several ways, notably her use of silence. She spoke for less than two minutes, and then stood in front of the huge crowd, tears running down her face, until six minutes and twenty seconds had passed. She timed herself with her smartphone. She then gave a brief conclusion. Since academic people like me need to give things names, let’s call this illustrative silence.

Now, silence can serve several purposes. You can be silent to show that you are powerless. You can be silent to show that you agree with someone (“silence gives consent”). You can be silent to show that you disagree with someone.  You can meditate in silence. As Edward P. J. Corbett pointed out, the audience can be silent. In Chapter 7 of my book about the 1896 presidential campaign, I talked about the way William McKinley ignored important issues to focus on his main point.  He wasn’t literally silent; he was just silent in the sense that he ignored something that could not be ignored. In any case, silence can be powerful.

In her brief speech, González talked about the tragedy. She said, “No one could comprehend the devastating aftermath or how far this would reach or where this could go. For those who still can't comprehend because they refuse to, I'll tell you where it went. Right into the ground, six feet deep.” She is right in the sense that, faced with the failure of their ideas, people often fail to understand. (I’ll blog about that later.)  She wanted people to understand how quickly the shooting was over, and talked about the timing in her conclusion:

“Since the time that I came out here, it has been six minutes and twenty seconds. The shooter has ceased shooting and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape and walk free for an hour before arrest. Fight for your life before it’s somebody else’s job.”

Silence makes people feel uncomfortable. As González stood on the stage, crying for her friends, the crowd listened for a while, clapped rhythmically, chanted “never again,” and called out “Emma, Emma.” But, mostly, the thousands of people just listened. Only after her timer beeped and she resumed speaking did people understand why she was silent. It seemed like a long time to be silent, but it was a short time for shooting victims to live. We all know that six minutes and 20 seconds is a short time, but González showed—illustrated—how short the time was. Illustrative silence isn’t the usual way that speakers use silence, but it worked.