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Rhetorical analysis of george w bush presidential speech
Rhetorical analysis of george w bush presidential speech
Importance of rhetoric
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Donald Trump’s presidential nomination acceptance speech relies heavily on the three rhetorical strategies of pathos, logos, and ethos. While Trump employs all three strategies in his speech, he primarily relies on pathos to garner support from the crowd. Trump’s use of pathos is simple and repetitive. He claims, many times, that he will return safety to America, effectively ending crime and violence. Trump constantly paints the country in a dystopian light, emphasizing how terrorism and police attacks have placed the United States in a state of crisis. Besides making claims that crime is rampant, Trump also uses anecdotes to further incite the crowd. By mentioning stories about an immigrant killing an innocent American college girl and Iranian troops capturing American sailors, Trump highlights Americans’ safety concerns both domestically and …show more content…
In his speech, Trump presents several statistics to back up his claims about the problems in the United States. For example, when Trump mentions crime, he throws out statistics, saying “almost 4,000 [people] have been killed in the Chicago area since he [Obama] took office,” or there was a “seventeen percent increase in homicides in the past year.” These statistics make his claims seem more legitimate while also explicitly throwing blame on the opposing party’s crime prevention policies. Trump’s speech has a pattern of throwing a barrage of numbers at the crowd in between over-generalized statements, like “the United States is in crisis.” Numbers and statistics are generally regarded as concrete evidence of a phenomenon. By utilizing an array of statistics as part of his assertions, Trump aims to come across as highly believable. With the crowd riled up from Trump’s inflammatory words about the rise of crime rates, he is able to further persuade the audience with the use of concrete
Moving into the speech, pathos,ethos, and logos were mentioned multiple times. Pathos appeal to the emotions which help the reader connect to the speaker. For instance, the use of “Us” and “America will rise” various times allows the audience to connect more to the subject. Also, Booker mentions the statement “Love knows that every American has worth and value” which conveys that the audience is important and that the people of America are in this together. Ethos are appeals to credibility or
...etorical analysis teaches that the practice of rhetoric in pathos is not always strong enough to stand alone or solely support an argument. Many times pathos is contingent on emotions that are not supported by anything but the speaker alone. Therefore, like President Johnson’s speech, it is important to stick to a genre since it offers enough structure to validate the pathos illustrated. The deliberative genre provides a speech that evokes a serious setting where the speaker can be taken seriously and with a sense of urgency. The combination of pathos and genre can be a model for a successful pair of rhetorical features explained through my rhetorical analysis of Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1963 acceptance speech. In this speech he was able to address the devastating loss and mourning of JFK, while all the same maintaining an outlook of perseverance of the American people.
In this time in age we are constantly being bombarded with media. The question is, do we know when to distinguish logos, pathos, and ethos? Rhetoric has been around for many centuries and idea has stayed the same, but the way we receive this information is changing. When, thinking about history one can think about it as boring. However, when reconstructed in a comical sarcastic way, it takes a life of its own. The following videos that were analyzed, were very interesting to say the least. They were not what you would expect to find in an educational atmosphere. They contained profanity and narrators were inebriated to the point that their speech was slurred. Ultimately, it has been a way to progress from the original idea of rhetoric, to the new age
Bush opens his speech by acknowledging the events of September 11, and those that lost the lives of loved ones and to those that gave their life trying to save others in the buildings. He appeals to those that remain strong by saying that, “These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong.” His use of pathos helps Bush to calm and control the public in order to keep the country together. This
At the beginning of the president’s speech, Bush used pathos to convey images of the terrorist attacks to the American people. George Bush recalls, “The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge -- huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger” (Bush). This recollection of the terrible events tugs at the emotions of those who were listening to his speech at the time because many families had lost their loved ones to the attacks. The president recalled these terrible images of destruction in order to grab the attention of his listeners and express the mood of the situation. However, President George Bush does not only use pathos for sadness but he also uses pathos to portray American patriotism. The Commander and Chief states, “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve” (Bush). This pathos is used for a completely different purpose. Instead of using the rhetorical device to touch on the emotions of the situation, here Bush uses pathos in an effort to lift up a grieving nation. His words are intended to give the horror stricken people hope when he explains how America is not a nation that will be broken so
Guns do belong in schools and prospective parents should be required to obtain a license before having kids. These are the dominant themes present in Jamie O'Meara's "Gun, Sex, and Education" and Janice Turner's "Should We Need a License to Be a Parent?" respectively. O'Meara argues that just like sex education arms the youth with knowledge, protecting them from irresponsible promiscuous behavior, gun education would serve the same purpose with respect to violence and guns. Similarly, Turner calls for new legislation but in an entirely different arena. She believes that in order to become parents, adults or non-adults for that matter, should meet a certain required standard and obtain a license in order to enter the most important profession of all: parenting. In order to develop these arguments, both writers utilize the general rhetorical strategies of comparison and argument. However, there is one key difference between the approaches taken to the development of the arguments. O'Meara's article has successfully employs ethical (ethos), emotional (pathos) and logical (logos) appeal whereas Turner's article takes a predominantly rational appeal (logos). Though both articles do an excellent job of conveying their points, all things considered, O'Meara's attempt at presenting a well balanced approach appealing to logic, emotion and ethics is more successful than Turner's attempt at presenting a solely logical argument.
Strength of Argument: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Bell Hooks’s essay, "Keeping Close to Home", uses three important components of argument (ethos, pathos, and logos) to support her claim. Hooks develops her essay by establishing credibility with her audience, appealing to the reader’s logic, and stirring their emotions. She questions the role a university should play in the life of a nation, claiming that higher education should not tear a student away from his roots, but help him to build an education upon his background. Bell Hooks gains the trust and credibility of readers through knowledge of the topic at hand, establishing common ground with the audience, and demonstrating fairness.
Ronald Reagan adeptly utilizes Ethos Pathos and Logos in his Brandenburg Gate address, he attempts to sway the audience of the importance of success of the marshal plan and western values as a whole, and convince the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open up the barrier which had divided West and East Berlin since 1961. Reagan begins his speech by addressing the people present and recognizing the “freedom” and “feeling of history” of the city of Berlin has. He makes his first reference to previous speakers by saying, “Twenty four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, and speaking to the people of this city and the world at the city hall. Well since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn to Berlin. And today, I, myself, make my second visit to your city,”( Reagan 361) His first usage of pathos is when he addresses the east berliners who were separated from the westerners by the Berlin wall and tells them, “I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this
Bush demonstrates that with the use of metaphors, personification, and also repetition. Using metaphor, he compares America to steel, saying that America is like steel, but not pliable. Portraying that whatever dangerous act comes to America, America will stay strong and not move. Personification is to explain the reasoning behind the terrorists’ operations and the motives behind this move. Bush gives feeling and visualization traits to the nation, consequently putting it in the nation’s point of view, highlighting what the nation felt and saw. Repetition is to bring America together and strengthen everyone. It is to show that this heartbreaking event did not just affect the victims, but it affects the entire country. The way Bush uses repetition to get the people of America together makes America stronger because the more a country is together, the more power and strength it will possess. As a final point, President Bush’s usage of these three rhetorical devices grabs the attention of the people and helps Bush express the type of tone he wants to get
George W. Bush creates a compassionate and operative way of presenting the issues that he feels strongly about. He chooses to use emotions and values to allure the audience. The emphasis on prosperity and hard-working Americans take his campaign to a different level than his opponents, who are discussing policies and laws. Bush, who is pushing for conservative reform, heads off his campaign with a strong rhetorical argument and a well-developed ethos. If he is able to maintain this advantage and fix a few minor flaws in his approach, he will be well on his way to a seat in the Oval Office.
It is spread throughout his essay, starting with the statistic he provides. The statistic states, “We are advised that in order to secure the boarders, we must deport 12 million people. Never mind who they are or where they and that it could cost up to $230 billion to do it.”(Schwarzenegger, 26) That appeals to pathos because that is a lot of money and its innocent people getting deported. Mr. Schwarzenegger uses 9/11 to his advantage also. Before 9/11 Congress assumed everyone had good intentions; after 9/11 Congress feels like they cannot assume that anymore. 9/11 is a part of pathos because it was a very traumatic event when the towns fell and, many people died. He also appeals to the family providers by using the example of the father not letting fences stop his dreams of providing for his family. Schwarzenegger also used the fact that some charities are being punished for helping immigrants.
In the beginning of the speech Barack Obama reflects back to where his parents and grandparents came from and what they did as their occupation. Obama shows pathos, logos and ethos many times throughout his 2004 keynote speech. He also spoke on why his mother and father gave him the name that they gave him. By doing so, Barack Obama showed pathos throughout the speech and got his audience to know him a bit before pursuing the Democratic Party to vote for John Kerry. He appeals to his audience by mentioning that his parents are both passed away, and from the look of things that did not stop him from standing where he was that day with pride and sadness:
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.
Throughout George W. Bush's political career he has implored the use of Aristotle's tripod, which we like to call it. This tripod is a rhetoric which implies that persuasion relies on three things, which are ethos, pathos, and logos. Logos is devoted solely to logic and reason. While on the other hand, pathos deals with attitudes and beliefs. Perhaps the most important one which pertains to George W. Bush is something called ethos, that is to say the branch of the tripod which deals with the personal strengths of the speaker and most importantly his character. Throughout his political journey he has showed the use of pathos, logos, and ethos time and time again, but the one of which he is commonly known for is ethos. The instances in which he has demonstrated them are countless, but I will recall but three. The first event took place on the day of September 14, 2001 at 'Ground Zero', three days after the attack of the World Trade Centers. The third instance was on September 20, 2001 during his Address to a Joint Session of Congress. Lastly, was the State of the Union Address in Washington D.C. Which was held on January 29, 2002.
President Lincoln, King George VI, and President F. Roosevelt all gave speeches facing a conflict and they used ethos, pathos, and logos when persuading their audiences of the arguments they presented. They used ethos to prove their credibility and trustworthiness, pathos to attract their audience and connect to them on an emotional level, and logos to back up their information and arguments with logical reasoning.