On Tuesday, January 30, 2018, the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, delivered the 2018 State of the Union Address. His purpose was to showcase his accomplishments, to substantiate his agenda for the future, and to create a sense of togetherness. His use of rhetorical strategies including diction, pathos, and figurative language, aided him in doing so. Diction refers to an author’s word choice. Donald Trump starts off his speech by welcoming his audience: “Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, the First Lady of the United States, and my fellow Americans.” This is important to notice because he could have easily said, “Hello my fellow colleagues and fellow Americans,” but he decided to specifically call out certain people and recognize them at the beginning of his speech. Donald Trump also stood at the podium in hopes of creating a feeling of unification. In the first lines of the …show more content…
All throughout his address, Donald Trump uses this strategy to not only once again create a feeling of togetherness, but to also instill a patriotic feeling in the American people. He states, “Over the last year, we have made incredible progress and achieved extraordinary success. We have faced challenges we expected, and others we could never have imagined. We have shared in the heights of victory and the pains of hardship. We endured floods and fires and storms. But through it all, we have seen the beauty of America's soul, and the steel in America's spine.” He wants to depict that no matter the obstacle that has been put in America’s path, its people have joined hands and overcome it all. “Over the last year, the world has seen what we always knew: that no people on Earth are so fearless, or daring, or determined as Americans.” Stated mid-way through his speech, the President uses this to express his pride in the American people, and instill the same feeling in his
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.
In order to grasp the rhetorical situation, one must first understand the correlation between the purpose of the State of the Union Address and the response to the address. Before discussing the response in detail, one needs to know why the State of the Union Address is given. According to the website, This Nation, the intent of the State of the Union Address shall convey a message of what America is striving to become in the form of speech to the citizens. The website defines the State of the Union Address by stating, “ shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the
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.
of patriotism in his speech. He wants America to be proud even in the face of
Primarily he starts out his address by speaking directly to his audience, the American people. He states: “We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss.” By doing so he establishes who his intended audience is, which is very important in a speech like this. It helps the audience feel a greater connection to the speaker since he is addressing them directly and relating to them.
President Trump’s inaugural address was a speech many have called short, brutish, but effective. While being shorter than the average inaugural address, falling nine-hundred and two words behind President Obama’s second inaugural address, it took only those one-thousand four-hundred and thirty-three words to reach out in an attempt to unite the divided American people. Trump’s speech effectively offers a new vision of our government, by connecting to people emotionally and logically, however lacking many facts and playing more off his credibility, many people questions his point in saying “empty talk is over.”
Every 20th of January, the United States undergoes the passing of power from one president, to another. In this specific election, Donald J. Trump was elected president. He has received much criticism from the opposition, but much praise from his supporters. Although a very controversial person, Trump gave a great speech that was based on uniting the people as one. Trump used multiple rhetorical strategies such as repetition, pauses in speech, and listing are just a few of them.
In the speech, President Bush uses several metaphors to show that the United States is a strong country. Bush leads into the comparison of America, to the bending still occurring from the planes flying through the
From his extremely vivid imagery at the beginning to his conclusion that America plans to seek a solution with Russia and other nations, the president’s flow from using pathos to logos to ethos made his speech very effective and compelling. His argument was backed up and supported all through out his speech, which helped his audience believe that what he was saying is true and important. However, his speech would have been nothing without the implication and opinion that America is the strongest nation in the world. Although this point is debatable, it is our duty to help other nations. We definitely do an excellent job at helping other nations and always having their best interests at heart. I believe this was the main goal for Obama’s speech; a plan to protect the United States. The use of logos, ethos and pathos just helped his speech to be more persuasive and
The Sate of Address is a yearly address delivered in January by the president of the US to Congress, giving the administration 's view of the state of the nation and plans for legislation. In President Obama’s 2016 Sate of Address, his purpose was to inform Americans about his vision for the remainder of his term. He conveys this message by using a relatable and concerning tone, which allowed his readers to connect to the ideas he had proposed. Also, during his speech, President Obama’s chose topics that spoke to every gender, race, and social class. For example, President Obama said “First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us especially when it comes when it comes to solving urgent
President Obama’s Inaugural Speech: Rhetorical Analysis. Barrack Obama’s inauguration speech successfully accomplished his goal by using rhetoric to ensure our nation that we will be in safe hands. The speech is similar to ideas obtained from the founding documents and Martin Luther King’s speech to establish ‘our’ goal to get together and take some action on the problems our country is now facing. As President Barack Obama starts his speech, he keeps himself from using ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’ and replacing it with ‘we’, ‘us’, and ‘together’ to achieve his ethos.
Each speech has its own audience that differs from the other. In the inaugural speech the audience was the public and therefore the speech was short and used short sentences that are easy to understand. On the other hand, the state of union speech’s audience was mostly the Congress members and therefore the language was more specific and filled with political terminology. Both speeches will be discussed in context and using ethos, pathos and logos. First of all, the Inaugural Address was the President Obama’s speech that was delivered to the crowds after the oath of office ceremony that took place at the West Front of the United States.
As a result from extreme hard work and perseverance followed by an unmatchable drive to succeed, Donald J. Trump has earned the right to be known as a multi-billionaire, real estate icon, and President of the United States of America. Reflecting on his life, he has faced many challenges and overcame them all. To understand how he rose to success and his journey to the top of the kingpin, it is important to recognize how he saw the american dream and pursued it. Today, many recognize him as the president but very few can fully grasp all that he has done in his life. From his start as a real estate mogul, to his impact on media, there are many questions as to how he became so recognizable today.
Here the parallelism, again creates rhythm, while the words “hope” and “unity” also play to people’s feelings of a new beginning and comfort them. Contrasting Obama’s use of parallelism, but still using positive word choice, Trump states, “We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again”(Trump). The words “thrive” and “prosper” are an attempt to fill the American people with hope and comfort, that Trump will help solve the issues at hand. This combined with the short sentences makes it easy for the audience to understand what Trump is
On January 20, 2009, President Obama was officially inaugurated and sworn in as the forty-fourth president of the United States of America. The tradition of being inaugurated requires the president to give a speech about the goals they want to reach during their presidency. The president must make a speech that appeals to the audience while being professional. Rhetoric is a useful strategy to utilize in speech making. Obama uses rhetoric to achieve presenting his message of creating hope and change together in America while fixing the economic and social challenges and issues left behind from the previous president. Barack Obama uses syntax, the rhetorical triangle, and diction to portray his message.