Barack Obama Speech Rhetorical Devices

In his eulogy for his friend John McCain, President Barack Obama underlined what a fantastic friend John was and how much they respected one another despite holding different political views. According to Barack Obama, not only was McCain an outstanding leader, he was also a wonderful friend.The fundamental objective of Barack Obama's address was not only to pay tribute to John McCain, but also to honor him as a person and a leader, and to showcase both his public and private performances throughout his political career. Throughout his speech, Obama utilized rhetorical appeal, especially ethos and pathos, anaphora as well as personal aspects to highlight John McCain's great accomplishments to society and draw countless parallels between

For instance, while reflecting on a moment when he and McCain had a lengthy discussion about their own ideas, President Obama said “ He knew more than most of his own flaws, his blind spots, and he knew how to laugh at himself. And the self awareness made him even more compelling….. We’d just sit and talk in the oval office… We talk about policy, and we’d talk about family……Our disagreements didn’t go away during these private conversations- those were real and often deep…” (par 14). In this section of the speech, President Obama used ethos to emphasize who John was both at work and outside of it. He made sure to emphasize this to the audience in order to highlight what a great friend John was and to attempt to lessen the sorrow that was in the air while offering condolence to John's friends, family, and other close associates. Obama didn't stop there; he also used ethos along with parallelism in one part of the speech, emphasizing, “He made us better presidents, just as he made the senate better, just as he made this country better.” Obama employs parallelism in this line to good effect. He is successful at capturing the audience's interest and maintaining their suspense. Additionally, by emphasizing all of McCain's contributions to the nation, he draws the audience in. By emphasizing McCain's accomplishments as well as the effects he had on Obama as a

For example in a segment of his speech, President Obama emphasizes. “Even when we disagree, especially when we disagree, John believed in honest argument and hearing our views. He understood that if we get in the habit of bending the truth to suit political expediency, our democracy won't work.” This quote from Obama shows how much he looked up to John McCain as a role model and how things would fall apart if they weren't honest with each other. It also demonstrates how McCain respected and accepted other people's points of view, as well as how McCain cared about America enough to defend his democracy from lies before spreading them. Furthermore, this is one of many qualities of McCain that Obama stressed that actually emphasize McCain attributes and provided the audience an inside insight into who McCain was as a friend and a leader, Simply exemplifying ethos with the amount of passion Obama highlighted in a single