Rhetorical Analysis Of Bill Clinton's Inaugural Address

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The Inaugural Address of a newly elected president can have an incredible impact on both those who support the young presidency, and those who do not. These speeches are widely broadcast. In school, businesses, and at home, the words of the person who has been elected are heard by hundreds of thousands. The message that these words deliver can sway those who are unhappy with the vote’s results, fearful about the future, or expectant of greatness to look forward without distrust or doubt and to look to the president for leadership and guidance. The focus of the speech illuminates what issues are present in society, and what the commander in chief plans to address in his steps forward. In Bill Clinton’s 1993 Inaugural Address, he incorporated a hopeful but urgent tone, repetitive rhetorical devices that emphasized his point, and an inspirational organizational format to argue that it was the responsibility of the American people and their leadership to change society for the better. In the selected passage, Clinton took up tone that was serious, but at the same time optimistic, in order to convey his message to …show more content…

In his initial statement that innovations have come far, he made use of parallelism in a noun-adjective pairing, and stated that, “Communication and commerce are global. Investment is mobile. Technology is almost magical, and ambition for a better life is now universal.” Then as his tone sobered, he used anaphora tied to the word when, and argued that, “…when most people are working harder for less, when others cannot work at all, when the cost of health care devastates families and threatens to bankrupt our enterprises, great and small; when the fear of crime robs law abiding citizens of their freedom; and when millions of poor children cannot even imagine the lives we are calling them to

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