Obama Rhetorical Devices

President Obama is a great orator who uses many rhetorical devices in his speech. Of all strategies used, Obama mainly used all types to build his own credibility while also provoking the audience to think in a more unified manner.

In his speech, he uses many devices one being irony. President Obama talks about the past when he says, "and yet words on parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage" (5). President Obama is really talking about how ironic it is for the US to fight for independence for all Americans and slaves not being included, given that the country was buiilt on their backs. He uses this device of irony because it makes the reader realize that if the US wants to progress, we have to include all Americans.

When President Obama talks about his own story he says, "I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a depression to serve in Patton's army during WWII" (8). This is an ethos style of writing. What President Obama is basically saying is that he is the son and grandson of the people who helped contribute to his nation's success. This style of writing is used to build his credibility because the reader when hearing this will be encouraged to think that Obama's upbringing was around hard working Americans, so he must know the struggle of the average American and he must believe in the progression of America. Another device President Obama uses is an oxymoron. He implements this into his writing when he says, "out of many we are truly one" (8) This phrase cannot stand true, how are you one with many beings? This strategy is truly effective because it gets the audience to once again think in a unified state of mind and to join and move together as a whole which is the goal of the