The subject of my investigation for the rhetorical analysis essay is going to be the speech ‘Being Perfect’ by the football coach Gary Gaines in the movie Friday Night Lights (find the text here http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechfridaynightlights2.html and the scene on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-iPiN_YHjY) . He presented this speech to his players at half time on their final and most important match to win the championships. Its purpose is to motivate and encourage the players to perform as best as they can out on the field. The coach wants them to believe in themselves and in their team.

The text argues that being perfect does not mean being successful in sports, academics and/or relationships. It is not about someone’s quantity of achievements, but about the paths someone takes to reach the goal. The individual has to challenge himself and fight for the goal. Hence, it is the amount of effort that makes others believe you are perfect.

The reason I chose this speech is because it speaks out of my heart. My dad always says ‘Nobody is perfect’, with which he tries to calm me down whenever I am upset about anything. However, I agree with this speech because the adjective would not exist in our vocabulary if there were not such a thing as being ‘perfect’ and Coach Gary is right. It is someone’s effort that brings him to perfection because not letting anyone down is admirable and certainly not easy. Also, this speech uses a lot of ethos, which is quite amusing in its context because it is a speech dedicated to football players and normally we would associate violence and aggression with them; however Coach Gary appeals to their emotions. Therefore, this text will be a great basis to analyse its rhetorical devices in regard to its context.