Rhetorical Analysis Of I Am An American Day Address

Abigail Woodard

Writting 117

Mrs. Cochran

June 12th, 2023

Is this America?

53 Seconds in, one person is already shot and killed. 1 minute and 57 seconds in, 10 more are shot and killed. That's not even the chaos in the background. Childish Gamino has a music video that came out in 2018 that talks about and shows what's going on in America. Which is lots of violence, guns, and distraction by entertainment. 74 years earlier, in 1944, Learned Hand had his "I Am an American Day Address". In this speech, he talks about liberty, freedom, what people sought when coming to America, and what America means. Both Childish Gambino and Learned Hand are trying to unite people

He talks about the reason that made people want to move to America is the freedom they could have. Although he doesn't describe liberty or freedom. My defintion of freedom is the ability to choose to do the right thing. In the second paragraph of his address, he talks about a lesson we were taught that we've "never learned but never quite forgotten. I think that this is talking about God giving us a conscious. He's given us the ability to know right from wrong. We've never learned how to do everything right, but we'll also always have a little thing inside of us reminding us that we did wrong. Childish Gambino's definiton of freedom would be the ability to have guns. Having guns isn't a problem, its what we do with the guns that creates the problem. We have the ability to choose the right thing to

I think the purpose of the video is to open the eyes of Americans to what Childish Gambino thinks the truth is. The video starts with a guy playing a guitar, Gambinos dancing, the mood is happy and light. Then Gambino pulls out a gun and shoots the man playing the guitar. The mood changes. Now throughout the rest of the video theres chaos and violence in the background. But all your focus is on Gambino and the group he's dancing with. Is this the truth of what America is? Is America only decribed as a violent, scary and chaotic place? Are all police as shown in the video the same in real life? Does bad out weight the good? I agree with Gambinos, America has a lot of gun violence and chaos. But what about all the good in America? I went to eight graduation parties this weekend. That's something to celebrate! One third of America's graduates are first generation graduates. America is a place for new opportunity, but that isn't shown in the video. Does the bad in America mean more than