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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Sandy Hook And Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

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Sandy Hook/Gettysburg Rhetorical Analysis Essay On December 14, 2012 President Obama addressed the nation in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Critics compared this speech to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address speech giving to Americans in the war on November 19, 1863. The purpose of both speeches was to allow a form of comfort to the american people and to give the country a sense of togetherness or hope in some form. Both speeches were given in tragic times but the presidents were different in the way they addressed the people. The differences in tone and diction were what made President Obama’s Sandy hooks speech more effective than Lincoln’s GettysBurg address speech. President Obama’s Sandy hook speech was a speech based on a shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut. His speech portrayed many tones, …show more content…

When Obama says “These neighbors are our neighbors and these children are our children” he is making a powerful statement about his view of our people. He is not looking at himself as president, he is looking at the nation as a whole, saying that we are a family and that we are together. Obama is not individualizing the feelings of this incident because he knows that the entire country feels the way he does. Unlike Lincoln’s speech, Obama is showing us his empathy and his true feelings towards our country. His words strike emotion, like when he says “...take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics”. Although he is president he is disregarding politics in order to prevent this country from hurt. This figurative language, litotes, is ironic because he is president and he is a big part of politics. The Sandy Hook speech on December 14, 2012 was a powerful and effective speech that touched the hearts of all american people in a way that has not been compared to by any other

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