Obama Lewis Eulogy Rhetorical Analysis

Rhetorical Analysis of the Obama/Lewis Eulogy

Our country is constantly a work in progress and a lot of people from the very start have been working hard to make this country a better place for everyone in it. No matter how prominent their role is/was in changing America or how well-known their name is each person holds an important role in making us better as a country and as a society. Before his passing John Lewis was one of these people who had a very prominent role in changing our country for the better. Barack Obama, the former 44th president of the United States, the first black or POC president, shines a light on John Lewis's contributions to our country while giving the eulogy at Lewis's funeral. While speaking Obama explains how,

Through the use of many personal anecdotes of his own experiences with Lewis and how Lewis affected his life to establish credibility for Lewis's work, as well as preaching the same ideals that John Lewis practiced and tought and using his credibility to amplify Lewis's message to further inspire the audience, Barack Obama attempts to honor John Lewis's memory and all the work he did to progress America and encourage the attendees of Lewis's funeral to try and live life more like Lewis.

In order to introduce Lewis's character to the younger generation or to any Americans that might not know him or his story very well, Obama uses ethos and pathos by giving several personal anecdotes about his relationship with Lewis both professionally and casually using his credibility to establish to the audience what kind of person John Lewis was. Obama shares the story of his relationship with Lewis and how great of an inspiration Lewis was to him. Before telling these stories Obama says "Like John, we have to give it all we have."(40) showing to the audience

He talks about the Black Lives Matter movement and says "We see it in everybody doing the hard work of overcoming complacency, of overcoming our own fears and our own prejudices, our own hatreds. You see it in people trying to be better, truer versions of ourselves. And that’s what John Lewis teaches us. That’s where real courage comes from."(47) There is hate all around us and this hate was displayed a larger amount during the pandemic with all the hate crimes towards the Asian community and all the resistance to the Black Lives Matter movement which is what Obama is referring to. He is conveying to the audience that overcoming these kinds of prejudices is exactly what John Lewis stood for in his life. He is establishing credibility for Lewis and continues to paint an image of him as a good person in the minds of the audience. Him being a former president, and not only but the first black president, Obama knows that more people will care about what he has to say and are more likely to listen to this eulogy because of that, so he is leveraging his fame to get John Lewis's message out to more people. This way Obama can honor him by doing the very thing Lewis worked all his life to do, promote change for a better America. In the