Rhetorical Analysis Of George Bush Speech On 9/11

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In his speech, delivered on September 11th, 2001, President George W. Bush attempted to address the country on the heart-wrenching incident that had just occurred only a few hours earlier. On this day, the people of America witnessed terrorist attacks to three of our nation's most recognized establishments. President Bush gave his utmost effort in providing the citizens of America with a sense of comfort when they needed it most. Using an optimistic tone, Bush explained to citizens that together they will refer back to the promising outcomes of past traumatic events and experiences and use this sense of hope to keep the people of America hopeful for troubling times to come. With a new sense of unity, the people of America were looking for answers …show more content…

Bush decided to use personal pronouns to include how these attacks on America had affected himself. He wanted people to understand that he is a person too and he is doing his best to think of ways on how to come back from this downfall. Also, he wanted the people to know that this event affected him on a personal level because it was an attack on his country during his presidency. To connect with the audience’s emotions he uses pronouns such as “I”, “our”, and “we” to explain that he is one of them. Although he is their leader, in the end he is a citizen just like the audience and is impacted in a similar way that they are. Using these personal pronouns helps the audience comprehend that he is with them and in a similar situation. Bush quotes Psalm 23, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me”. Bush emphasizes the fact that the country is in this together and does not want any people to feel as if they are on their own. Citizens should feel safe in their country and if they do not then he is failing his job as their leader. When doing so, the audience becomes more sympathetic for Bush and understand that he is under a lot of pressure and is doing everything in his power to provide them with safety. He re-evaluated the …show more content…

As the President, people expected Bush to have a very formal message for the nation to provide them with details of the incident. Bush’s speech seemed to be very prepared so the audience knew that he was well informed of the incident and that he had an idea for the people. Bush reiterates that, “A great people has been moved to defend a great nation”. By doing this, the president wanted to sound sincere to the people because this was a devastating incidentdevastating incident and they would listen to what he said. The tone is severe throughout the speech and people will take his words more seriously than they might if it was something unimportant. The manner in which he delivers the speech to the citizens is important because they get a sense of how this event impacted American lives or how it will impact the way they live. In the speech, Bush reiterates that “Today, our nation saw evil -- the very worst of human nature -- and we responded with the best of America”. The use of the words like “evil” and “very worst of human nature” give great detail as to how appalling this event was to all Americans. Bush uses words like this to describe the feeling that will come to mind when they recall the event. Americans came together on this day to fight against evil and restore a nation of

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