When Barack Obama was elected as the nation’s 44th president on January 20, 2009, he became the first African American president of the United States of America and his inaugural address started with a strong, thank you and ended with a strong metaphor, which aligned the armed forces and citizens. In this paper I will analyze his twenty-minute speech. “First Inaugural Address” speech by President Barack Obama, is worthy to study and review, because chief speechwriters can pick up pointers from the hearty, well-developed message. The speech itself was written by Jon Favreau, 27, and reviewed/edited by Barack Obama, himself. Collectively, the well-organized message captured the momentum of the event and touched individuals through humility, …show more content…
By doing so, he simultaneously, related to his audience by discussing topics that undoubtedly affected them or someone they know. This is an example of how to keep your audience …show more content…
Again, he continues to show examples of how to keep his audience captivated, using phrases like “the state of our economy calls for action, bold and swift.”(Obama) “And we will act, not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.” (Obama) He cites scripture and the Declaration of Independence. He educates his critiques, “What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.” (Obama) Even though, he addressed them briefly he maintained a positive flow, tone of voice and body language. By doing so, President Obama successfully reaffirmed to the cynics that he is willing to stand up for America. As he gears up for his final thoughts and closing; he does so by, using strong yet amicable words which reach the audience on a global level…”a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept, but rather seize gladly…” (Obama) Undoubtedly, this part of the speech instilled faith in his presidency around the world. He closes by circling back to the American people. “America: in the face of our common dangers…So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled...”
In his “State of the Union” speech, President Barack Obama effectively uses the rhetorical devices of Ethos, Pathos and Logos to convey a more convincing message to the citizens of the United States to urge them to follow the example of the many people that have made their nation greater.
Franklin Roosevelt’s speech says the following, “Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.” Roosevelt uses words such as “stubbornness”, “incompetence”, and “unscrupulous” to underline the absence of morals in these money changers that have failed the American people. Barack Obama’s speech says the following, “Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.” Obama uses words such as “violence”, “hatred”, and “weakened” to stress the wrongdoing that have been committed by the previous leaders of the country. Both of the presidents use emotive language to illustrate the wrongdoings that have been committed by the previous
Have you ever watched the Presidential Inaugural Address? Well, you should because you can learn what the new president wants to do with the country you are living in. I analyzed Barack Obama and George Washington’s Inaugural Addresses. There were many differences and similarities between Barack Obama and George Washington’s that I will further explain in this essay. One difference was that Obama’s speech was about trust while Washington’s was about the citizens rights for the new nation. One similarity is that both speeches talked about what each person wanted to do as president. Barack Obama and George Washington's Inaugural Addresses made a big impact on the country.
He implements this emotional appeal into his speech to involve all Americans—people living in the United States of America, regardless of their ethnicity, race, or culture, and to acknowledge that the American people have endured this together, and that they will continue to advance after this event with stronger resolve, stronger than ever. In addition, he implements personification to motivate and empower the American people. “Our nation, this generation, will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future” (Bush, 2001). “This generation”, again a synonym for the American people, with its unwavering resolve, will fight for its freedom persistently. He intimates that the future of America and of democratic freedom is in the hands of the American people; that the American people have the power to control their fate.
Despite these generalizations, of which the President failed to fully support, his speech was quite effective. Most notably, Mr. Obama used anecdotes for various reasons, such as serving as springboards for more relevant issues, as well as to, more importantly, demonstrate pathos and logos. The latter two rhetorical elements were effectively employed by President Obama, helping to spur emotion (pathos) as well as to both support his claims and form logical conclusions (logos). Though, as previously mentioned, Obama occasionally presents assumptions of which he fails to support, Mr. Obama’s mastery of rhetorical strategies dwarfs most of the downsides of his address. All in all, it appears to be quite evident that President Obama presents effective rhetoric within his State of the Union Address.
In 1981, former president Ronald Reagan was inaugurated into office and just a couple days ago current president Donald Trump was inaugurated into office. When a president is inaugurated into house, they generally give an inaugural speech about what they will and can do for America. In Ronald Reagan’s inaugural address, he shares his thoughts about America and plans to come. Using different literary devices Ronald Reagan characterizes America as a broken country but, by using hard work and effort, America can truly be great.
When president Barack Obama first walked on the biggest stage in America eight years ago a lot of Americans did not trust his words of wisdom to carry, we the people to a better United States. On January 10, 2017 President Barack Obama walked back on that same big stage now known and loved by so many to give his last and final speech, his Farewell speech. All of the non believers were certainly awoken to the actions that were taken by president Barack Obama to achieve most of what he truly dedicated his life and career to. Obama worked hard to gain the love, respect and dedication by so many loyal americans today. It definitely was not an easy task to achieve, many trials and many errors. In this analysis I will state weather or not Obama’s
President Barack Obama has been a well-known political figure for just over 8 years; he has served two terms as the President of the United States. There has been controversy surrounding the first African American president, after his first term Obama failed to prove to America that he would fix all the things he promised to fix upon election. With his second term he has set in place his views and goals for the country. Obama’s views have been trying to benefit the overall population of American, from the poor all the way to the rich with a few subclasses in-between. During the Inauguration of his second term, won against Mitt Romney. His opponent stood for many things that were conflicting to Obamas platform, while Obama stood for rehabilitating the poor after the recession, Romney wanted to focus on tax breaks for the rich. Throughout the speech given by President Barack Obama, he outlines necessary changes in the system to benefit the people and the need for people to come together as one to have an effective country.
The president’s inaugural address allows the president to lay out his plans and intentions to excite and motivate people across the country. Since the main reason for his sermon is to inspire rather than educate, Kennedy rarely uses any logical pleads. Yet, Kennedy adequately uses passionate dialect to make the people sense their involvement in what the President says. Kennedy composes the assignment to bring back tranquility and good-wealth as not only his aim, but of the public as well.
He makes sure his audience connects with him directly by making them feel at his level, and at hiss. This way he connects to the audience, and in exchange, helps his statement of unity. Using various examples of parallelism, anaphora and refrain, Obama brands the theme of equality and togetherness in our country throughout the speech, vital to gaining the respect of his audience. Obama recalls the ‘enduring strength of the constitution’ by delving into the past alluding to America’s allegiance to the Declaration of Independence by quoting “we hold these truths. that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
It was a brief speech that captivated a lot of matters that concern the American citizens exclusively and the world inclusively. He divided his speech into different sectors which are citizens’ sacrifice, the idea of service, adopting changes, promise of wealth, government harmony and dignity. The language used in the speech was flawless and applicable to the audience, who was the public, since he was using every day vocabulary. Therefore, the speech has a strong structure that can be easily understood by the majority of people. The audience typically will and was the American citizens, but since the United States has many international relationships, President Obama was trying to reach beyond the nationwide concerns and meet a mutual background....
Let’s take a step back to 2008 in Philadelphia. Neither the city nor year suggests that history is going to be made. On March 18, 2008, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Barack Obama took the stage and delivered a speech that would portray the racial landscape of his presidency. In his speech, Obama points out rhetorical tactics to support his argument that we as Americans in this country need to be united for racial equality to exist. He begins his speech with a back story to highlight the kairotic moment present, then appeals to pathos through lots of examples of racial injustice to signify the need for such change, and then uses his appeals to ethos to suggest ways of change for Americans, both black and white. The speech was very successful: people from both sides praised his bravery, and later the same year, Obama demolished McCain in a close victory to secure his presidency.
Obama being a president of the newer America talked about the problems with the economy, unifying our nations in the world and the inequalities that still occur in our own nation. Obama states that, “We remain the most prosperous and powerful nation on Earth…Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.” By the time Obama got into office, America was struck with an economic disaster, countless natural disasters that still affected our country and the terrorist attacks that still left a hole in our country with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a time where we needed something new and something to push us forward in the future. The inequality in America that Obama spoke of being th...
On July 27, 2004, Barack Obama made arguably his most important speech, “The Audacity of Hope”, at the Democratic National Convention Keynote Address. These conventions are for political parties to announce a winner for nomination. All the way through his piece, Obama focuses on connecting Americans and himself to the audience. In fact, at the time, Barack Obama was a US Senate candidate for the United States president, and in making this speech, was offered a window for raising his popularity. Throughout “The Audacity of Hope” speech, Barack Obama implements three main devices to raise his political popularity: repetition, abstract language, and structure.
From Obama’s speeches I have been influenced to believe in changes, so I decided to improve in certain ways: