“There’s good in this world, Mr. Frodo…and it’s worth fighting for.”

If anybody who reads this is a LOTR fan, they will understand why I chose this speech.

“Sam’s Speech” occurs at the end of part two of the Lord of the Rings trilogy; The Two Towers. Here, he and Frodo have just survived a massive attack on Olgilath, ending with Frodo nearly slitting Sam’s throat due to the madness of the One Ring.

To think that Sam can one; stay calm and talk Frodo down while he’s under control by a dark energy and two; then stand up and make a speech about continuing to fight the darkness that threatens to consume is incredible within itself and says a lot about his character. This speech is shown as rhetorically effective because of the level of Sam’s resolve after all of the events that just befell them.

I titled this blog entry after the big, memorable line here, “There’s good in the world, Mr. Frodo…and it’s worth fighting for.” He says this after Frodo, his best friend, nearly killed him. Sam’s love for his best friend bested the fear he no doubt had when he had steel pressed to this throat. The rhetoric comes from the context; most people would try to fight back against someone about to stab them, more than likely trying to stab them back themselves. Sam peacefully calms Frodo down, stands up, and delivers a powerful speech, then continues to trust him as much as he did before the incident.

This speech is shown as rhetorically effective because it shows that there is not just one hero in this grand adventure; there are many, and Sam is one of them, as established in his speech.