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Rhetorical Analysis Of Barack Obama's Inaugural Address

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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. Throughout his speech, Barack Obama’s use of metaphor allows the audience to make powerful connections and conclusions; therefore, persuading them to support his plans. While analyzing past presidential inaugurations, Obama compares peace and prosperity to the ocean and economic crisis to gathering clouds and raging storms stating: “Forty-four Americans have now taken the …show more content…

He includes anaphora in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth paragraphs, which state: “For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died, in places just like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.” From this repetition of “For us” Obama clues his audience in on the fact that people from earlier generations fought for the generation of today’s Americans to have a better life than them. He also adds another anaphoric piece of information that builds a bond between him and his audience. Obama includes the words “We will," in the sixteenth paragraph. From the repetition of “We will," Obama expresses his need to build an alliance with his audience to include them in his

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Using this quote gave the readers a sense of the main idea, which was about racism. This helped to further improve the quality of Obama’s topic and support the points he was about to make. Then goes to give a brief information about Obama’s speech. He then began with his four rhetorical strategies, starting with allusion.

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The Rhetorical Elements of Barack Obama’s Speech President Obama uses rhetorical appeals throughout his speech. These rhetorical appeals help prove that each an every student should try their best in school. President Obama stated in his 2009 “Address to America’s Schoolchildren” that each student must take responsibility for his or her own education. President Obama uses many examples of ethos, logos, and pathos in his speech. In Obama’s 2009 “Address to America’s Schoolchildren” he has examples of ethos.

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In his speech Kennedy uses different rhetorical devices to unify the citizens of both the United States and the world. Kennedy was giving this speech after winning by a very small margin of votes so he was trying to unite the people of the United States and show he was the correct choice for the president. This speech was given during the Cold War so he was trying to connect the people around the whole world and establish peace. Kennedy was able to unify the people and try to establish peace while at the same time making himself seem like a very competent leader. In his speech Kennedy tries to build his credibility as a personable leader by creating ethos.

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John F. Kennedy’s was known as a very patriotic person, and that would raise the question why. Well, the answer can simply be found in his inauguration speech. He gave the speech to bolster the fighting spirit and act as an inspiration for the Americans. How he does this is interestingly simple by smart actually. He used a plethora of stylistic devices extensively in his speech.

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