Rhetorical Analysis Of Obama's Memorial Speech

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President Obama’s memorial speech following the Tuscan shooting carefully utilized the Aristotelian appeal of pathos, or emotional appeals through his word choice, which aligned him with the American people while still conveying a sense of authority, and his use of biblical allusions, which drew his audience together on the basis of shared ideologies. In his opening lines Obama shows his compassion for the victims and mourners of the shooting stating: “I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today, and will stand by you tomorrow.” With just this short statement Obama aligns himself with the American people, showing his empathy and comforting the people by saying “I will be here for you.” This …show more content…

By placing himself in this role, he creates the impression that as the father figure he is also in a position to give advice and serve as an educator. Obama then goes on to soothe and insure his nation that questioning and reflecting is natural, stating that “When a tragedy like this strikes, it is part of our nature to demand explanations –to try to impose some order on the chaos, and make sense out of that which seems senseless,” and then goes into the role of an educator by telling the story of each of the victims of the shooting. By telling each victim’s story, Obama further elicits an emotional response from the audience by effectively humanizing each person. This further creates a sense of unity, making it seem as if Obama really knew the victims, and making each person more relatable to the audience so that each member of the audience might feel as though any one of the victims could have been their neighbor or beloved family …show more content…

By alluding to the bible, Obama is able to better connect with the families of the victims, as many of the victims were explicitly described as being religious. In knowing that the republican party often incorporates Christian values into policies, Obama also uses religion to bridge the gap between the republican and democratic members of the audience by taking into consideration conservative values, while using quotes that were widely accessible, as both of the references he used were taken from the Old Testament, which is a point of reference for all Judeo-Christian religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) thereby facilitating the acceptance of his points in a very diverse audience. Furthermore, an important message in the book of Job, which Obama specifically referenced, is that God may put his people through trial, but there is always a bigger meaning behind the evils in the world, and evil should never make you doubt your belief. This can easily be projected to the circumstances at the time the speech was

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