A More Perfect Union Speech Rhetorical Devices

On March 18, 2008, Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama used rhetorical devices in his A More Perfect Union speech to reason certain problems he faced with certain people. He went out of his way to address these problems with his voters, undecided voters and the press so he could fix these problems and give hope to people that were down to racial discrimination. Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama was hit with a major task and his duty was to convince the United States of America that he would make this country united and free for all. He begins to gain the nations trust using repetition of phrases in his speech. Now you may find repetition annoying but he uses repetition to confirm that he “can no more disown…” the

He portrays that racial justice is needed and believes that “this nation cannot afford to ignore right now” (Pg.4). Then he says that “we would be making the same mistakes that Reverend Wright made” (Pg. 4) which brings in the idea that an allusion is used to compare the racial injustice in America to what Reverend Wright said in his “offending sermons” (Pg. 4). The comparison is very strong and brings a weight to Reverend Wright’s shoulders because he knew that his actions were wrong. It doesn't end there, Obama also uses allusion to compare Reverend Wright to his white grandmother. The significance is that both said racist comments that either made Obama “cringe” or totally went against a race causing a bigger divide in America. This comparison is strong also because it compares two acts that were done by two important people to the Obama’s and lays the truth all out in the since that because of two comments said, the divide in the USA grew. Anaphora is also shown in Obama’s speech once he begins to list what “offending sermons” (Pg.4) and his grandmother’s comments do to America. He lists off that these comments are just “to simplify, to stereotype and amplify the negative...”. The use of anaphora brings a greater meaning to a certain subject due to the style of writing. When you add “to” before every word then it makes a list, it adds an

Re petition is clearly shown once Obama goes from addressing what Reverend Wright said to what his new plan for America is. He uses “This time…” (Pg. 7) at the beginning of several paragraphs so that the people connect with him and see what his plans are for when he becomes president of the USA. This repetition is used to also catch the undecided voter’s attention so that they begin to find out what Obama’s plans are and maybe if it appealed to some undecide voters they would vote for Obama. Throughout the speech, we hear a tone this one of problem solver that Obama uses to address the racist comments that his reverend said in his offensive sermons towards other races. Later Obama changes and goes to a more inspirational tone so that he can grab people’s attention and make them feel that he is going to do the right thing to help this divided nation. He says, “they are our kids, and we will not let them fall…” and once he begins to talk about children and their futures, he grabs every single parents’ attention and makes them side with him once he begins to describe what he believes about the 21st century children’s future. We see that the use of repetition and the change in tone bring an impact to