James McBride’s memoir, The Color of Water, was written in a way that told his life story alongside his mother’s. Their entwined stories helped readers better understand how the effects of both his and his mother’s life changed him. He wrote about the struggles he experienced due to the racial inequality within his lifetime as well as the racial battles his mother faced. Not only did these tales create who he is today, they have entailed a new meaning. They have managed to touch people’s hearts and expose a struggle that has long been forgotten.
Not being able to know one’s identity during adolescence can lead to do drugs, commit theft, fail school, and be blind on what to do with their life. This is what James McBride had to go through during his adolescence. Growing up in a black community with a white mother can be very confusing and stressful. He employs rhetorical devices throughout his text in order to develop his epiphany regarding his mother’s life and by, extension, his own. Through the use of appeals and tone James McBride reveals the importance of education and religion, but above all else McBride mostly focuses on finding his identity, trying to understand race as he was growing up, and shows how his mother played an important role in his life
He briefly addresses the issues he finds with racism, and focusing on the important main goal of unity in America. Obama stated many things in his speech, which Clark states related to four rhetorical strategies: The power of allusion, parallelism, the “two-ness” of texture, and autobiography. Therefore, making his speech very influential to Obama getting his point across. Before analyzing Obama’s speech, Clark stated a very famous paragraph that was written by W.E.B DuBois.
During a funeral for Reverend Clementa Pinckney, a Charleston shooting victim, President Obama delivered an influential eulogy. This eulogy turned out to be so powerful that it traveled throughout the internet and became known as one of Obama’s best speeches from the duration of his presidency. The speech resonated so well with many citizens because of its relatable content and connections to passionate issues in today’s society. The delivery of the eulogy played a gigantic part in its effectiveness to Americans as well. President Obama’s eulogy contained beyond relatable content and various connections to the issues racking society’s bones today.
In order to convince the American people that black prosperity is an idea worth preserving, Obama uses his high status to give moral and meritorious credit to things associated with African Americans. He does this in a way that makes
Through the use of tone, first hand evidence, and allusion, Barack Obama achieves that we all have responsibilities as Americans to act on what we see and that we should live our lives in a way that exemplifies Rosa Parks’ life and values. The speaker of this speech is former President Barack Obama who is the first black president of the United States. Obama has a special connection to who he is commemorating which is Rosa Parks since he can relate to the discrimination and challenges people of color face everyday and realize that without her bravery and activism he wouldn’t be delivering this speech as a president. Through this speech Obama is using Rosa Parks’ life as an example to exemplify how one person standing up against injustice can
At the beginning of his speech, he conveys emotion through telling his own story and putting the audience in his shoes. He states “On the one hand he is born in the shadow of the stars and stripes and he is assured it represents a nation which has never lost a war. He pledges allegiance to that flag which guarantees "liberty and justice for all. " He is part of a country in which anyone can become President, and so forth”. This shows the audience how African American children feel when living in a country made on the premise of equality, but feeling anything but equal to their Caucasian peers.
This is a good rhetorical appeal because everyone knows about Martin Luther King Jr., Obama connects with us emotionally by using the fact that Dr. King enrolled into this college at the age of 15, he used his passion to study harder, and with the help of his college, Martin Luther King Jr. is able to thrive towards his dreams. Another example of pathos is when Obama says, “ I was raised by a heroic single mom, wonderful grandparents…”(Obama 8). Obama uses the fact that he did not grow up with the dream family, the family with two supportive parents. No, he specifically said that he grew up with a “heroic” mother and no father figure in his life. Since almost half of the United States lives with two parents, many people will take on pity
Rhetorical Analysis Former Illinois State Senator and soon to be Forty-fourth president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, recounts what happened in the past to make America what is today and how he intends to maintain the ideas of America’s founding fathers throughout his term of presidency. His intended audience of the first inaugural address is the citizens of America and his purpose was to comfort them about the past and encourage the future of America. He creates a patriotic and empowering tone in order to appeal to pathos. His diction throughout the speech illustrates patriotism, allusions, and anaphoras. Obama opens his speech by discussing the views of our forebears and documents and how we have followed through with those views.
Obamas political speech was about putting racial differences aside and focusing on more important issues. Such as health care, climate change, terrorist threats, and a falling economy (Barack, 2008). The thesis of Obamas speech was connecting races and pulling the differences into the light. The main purpose of the speech was to answer for racial comments that Reverend Wright had made. The speech barely touches on that and focuses more on the subject of race in America.
The public speaker starts off by bringing pathos into the speech by asserting “I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! Ain’t I a woman?” (“Ain’t I a woman”). That statement established an emotional bond between herself and the mothers in the audience, however, the spokesperson not only appeals to the African Americans in the audience, but also to the White mothers in the audience, too. The merging of the two races created a greater appeal to the audience, as a whole, because they all have shared one common goal, the desire of wanting women to be given equal
Barack Obama Has a Way with Words Barack Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope” speech was given on July 27, 2004 as the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. The speech made Obama further known in the world of politics, and a star among the Democratic Party. Though the description of presidential candidate John Kerry’s qualities makes Obama’s belief that Kerry will make the best president his obvious purpose, the quality of his speech boosted his career. Obama uses repetition devices, various sentence structures, and abstract language to create the strength and persuasive aspects of his speech.
The 44th and first African American President, Barack Obama, in his Inaugural Address, promotes a call to action. Obama’s purpose is to express his gratitude for his opportunity to become president and discuss his plans for economic advancement. In order to reach the American people of the U.S., Obama adopts a serious and thought-provoking tone to urge them to support his plans for advancement. During this time of economic crisis, Obama clearly conveys to the American people through his use of metaphor, allusion, and anaphora, that it is time to take a stand and make a change in America.
In a time when the country is particularly divided, Obama gives the victory to the people for
Barack Obama’s win for President in 2009 was a historical moment for the United States. His inaugural speech was much anticipated, because this was going to set the tone for his presidency. His speech told the American people that improving the economy is one of his priorities, but there were also other areas he would like to improve like healthcare and the education system. This was a speech that was meant to persuade the American public to take action for them to rise as a nation again, and for them to put their trust into him. His message addressed a couple of specific points like his gratefulness to the American people, the different crises America is facing, how America will overcome these crises, replying to his cynics, addressing the world, and then he reminded America again to be brave like they’ve always been to overcome the hard times (5 Speechwriting Lessons from Obama's Inaugural Speech, (n.d.).
