Barack Obama Ethos Pathos Logos

In 2004, Barack Obama, a one-term senator from Illinois delivered an essential speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. In his speech, Obama supported John Kerry’s selection as the Democratic presidential nominee. Through his speech, Obama mainly focused on the fact that he has achieved the American Dream, which has powered the hopes and aspirations of immigrants for generations. He addressed the fact that the Dream is enshrined in the United States Declaration of Independence: “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Obama communicates to his audience that everyone in America, despite what race and economic circumstances in which a person was born, has the potential to achieve the Dream. Obama’s speech was

He demonstrated that he was educated when he incorporated ethos in his speech. Ethos established the credibility of Obama, which helped his audience to take the propositions that he said as acceptable and true. Therefore, Obama gives proof of his education by referring to the authority of the state of Illinois and Abraham Lincoln. In the beginning paragraph, Obama makes an idea home to the audience that a person with a social background of so humble origins now is in the position of such a supreme place that he is expressing his deep gratitude on behalf of great state of Illinois and on the behalf of Lincoln. Consequently, the audiences are pursued in taking the speaker as a credible person. They accept his credibility as the delegate of the state of Illinois as well as the greatest president of America, Abraham Lincoln. The wise use of Obama's appeal to authority of the state of Illinois and of Abraham Lincoln increased his trustworthiness, integrity and reliability. Paragraph five reflected his personality in a very unique way by arousing the emotional force of the audience in favor of him. Here, the positive emotions are enthused not by recounting or narrating a story, rather by employing a careful collection of some episodes of mental pictures or images in very brief clauses.

that any person in the U.S. is able to achieve the Dream. Hence this feeling of the audience increased the credibility of Obama's character. Moreover, the use of the first person singular pronoun “I” not only demonstrated Obama’s personal contribution in a matter under discussion, but also his narcissism. Obama later took advantage of using the plural pronoun “we” during more uncertain state of affairs. Nevertheless, the distance between him and the audience got minimized when he used the plural pronoun "we." Through the course of his speech, Obama said “we” 35 times and he said the pronoun "us" 9 times and the pronoun "our" 22 times. Hence, the frequent use of pronouns in his speech helped Obama build rapport with his audience. “We” gave the feeling that Obama and the audience are not different, but rather the same being. This feeling gave a sense of unconscious pride to the listeners, they began to admire and take side of the speaker. Consequently, this strengthened Obama’s credibility and he clearly demonstrated audience adaptation. Obama clearly tailored his speech to the needs, interests, and expectations of his audience when he used antithesis. Obama used this technique in the 13th paragraph when he states: