Bartleby is a fun, slacking and outgoing student who unfortunately, gets turned down for every college he has applied for. To avoid the disappointment of his overly expectant parents, he creates the South Harmon Institute of Technology. But when their sham works too well and every other college rejects starts to apply to this school, Bartleby must find a way to give the education and future he, his students and friends deserve. Obviously this made up institution cannot go on for that long and eventually he gets into trouble and is faced with possible punishment.
Bartleby’s speech in the movie Accepted follows the notion of an audience persuasion at the end of the film as he stands in front of an academic jury. The audience is composed of the jury, students and teachers of a reputable university, students from South Harmin and parents. The speech Bartleby gives, includes the 5 cannons thus being invention, organization, style, memory and delivery. In terms of invention, he applies logos to convince the audience that South Harmin is a good place, using deductive reasoning—(if…then…but…therefore…) “That university’s tradition of what? Of hazing kids and humiliating anyone who’s a little different? Putting so much pressure s on these kids that they turn into these stress freaks and caffeine addicts. Why cant we both exist? But you can have your grades, rules, structures and ivory towers and we’ll do things our way. Why do we have to conform to what you want. You rob these kids of their creativity and passion that’s the real crime” Here Bartleby applies this overview stating most universities are not accepting of different potentials in general, to the specific case. Pathos is also used as he spawns emotions of compassion and sympathy from the audience as he defends his idea. “What about you parents did the system work out for you, did it teach you to follow your heart? Or teach you to play it safe? what about you guys, did you always want to be school administrators? Dr. Alexander was that always your dream?” He directs his question to parents and administrators in the audience involving them and arousing personal and emotional thought. “Look yeah I lied to you, and im sorry but out of that desperation something amazing happened full of possibilities and isn’t that what you ultimately want for us? Possibilities? “ He asks a rhetorical question to support his case. Another emotion generated by the rhetor, directs itself towards the educational judges, “im not going to argue you guys have already made up your minds, I am an expert in rejections..i can see it on your faces” This line emphasizes to the judges that Bartleby and others like him are so used to rejection that they have become responsive to facial gestures. This quote amplifies the notion that there are people that have been rejects so often, they have learned to recognize gestures from the critics who are interviewing or observing them. This stirs up the emotion of feeling sorry for the defendant and others like him, even slightly.
Ethos is evident as well, as Bartleby is known to the audience to have shammed an entire population of students and parents and educators before the speech. However during the speech he convinces the audience that it was all for a good cause and good did come out of it.
“There are such few truths in the world that when you see one you know it and I know it is a truth that real learning took place at South Harmin because you don’t need teachers or class rooms or fancy traditions or money to really learn, you just need people with a desire to better themselves. We’ll never stop learning and growing and the ideals that were instilled in us at our place.” After this statement, he is seen as more intelligent than originally perceived to the audience, as the crowd stands up in applaud. In terms of organization, it was emphasized throughout the beginning and end of the speech that the students “enrolled” at South Harmin were different whether they were social rejects or not however, they have capabilities and intelligence and are just as able to learn as the students dressed in fancy ties and who pay ridiculously high tuition. The style of the speech involved the speaker to communicate especially loudly when defending the students that attended (the rejects) and defending the very definition of “learning” itself. His voice intensified during periods he stressed his own beliefs in the matter on behalf of those who could not get their point across. The rhetor was extremely familiar and knowledgeable with the subject matter. He knew what he was saying, he knew the definition of learning, and he knew what to compare his case to in terms of real life examples. The delivery of the message was well conveyed as Bartleby showed confidence and zero hesitation. His voice got louder the more confident he became about a specific subject he knew he was correct about. The mode of presentation was carried out very well because he not only defended his case beautifully, he also got the audience involved by asking them open ended and personal questions that not only evoked emotion, they evoked emotions that would in turn undoubtedly, support his case. Using Neo-Aristotelian criteria, his speech, through its invention, organization, style, memory and delivery was prosperous in methods of evoking emotional responses from the audience and convincing them he had done the right thing.
The trial ends as everyone in the crowd stands up and applauds for Bartleby
http://movieclips.com/XZVx2-accepted-movie-bartlebys-speech/
Pop Studies and Rhetoric 
Based on Neo-Aristotelian criticism, I agree that Bartleby’s speech was a success. He was honest, well-spoken, and convincing, and excelled especially in terms of delivery. Despite Bartleby’s serious predicament, he did not prepare a speech, he delivered it impromptu. He created South Harmon similarly, by not preparing to run a university, and making it up as he went along. Both of these situations ended up creating something wonderful, so therefore, this speech was an accurate representation of the movie. Bartleby’s appearance is another important component because it plays a significant part in showing how he differs from North Harmon. Bartleby appears humble in his loose-fitting suit, in comparison to the other clean-cut students. This helps in reinforcing the idea that South Harmon students differ from everyone else. Another important component in building up the speech was Bartleby’s body movement. He started out looking dejected, with slouched shoulders and eyes downcast. However, the more he started talking, the more animated he became. Bartleby stopped directing his speech to the jury, and started talking to everyone in the room, gaining and drawing momentum from the crowd. He grew louder towards the end, and used stronger arm movements to conclude his speech.