Obama’s Hidden Message: A Look At “The Audacity of Hope” On July 27, 2004, Barack Obama made arguably his most important speech, “The Audacity of Hope”, at the Democratic National Convention Keynote Address. These conventions are for political parties to announce a winner for nomination. All the way through his piece, Obama focuses on connecting Americans and himself to the audience. In fact, at the time, Barack Obama was a US Senate candidate for the United States president, and in making this speech, was offered a window for raising his popularity. Throughout “The Audacity of Hope” speech, Barack Obama implements three main devices to raise his political popularity: repetition, abstract language, and structure. Much of Obama’s speech applies repetition devices, principally anaphora and epistrophe, which imply emphasis on certain socially …show more content…
Speaking specifically, since abstract words have no explicit definitions, the words fit to the person who defines them. As an elucidation, consider this excerpt: “John Kerry believes in the Constitutional freedoms that have made our country the envy of the world, and he will never sacrifice our basic liberties, nor use faith as a wedge to divide us.” In this sentence, Obama uses the words “freedoms”, “sacrifice”, “liberties”, and “faith” to describe John Kerry and what he does. By using these abstract words, Obama creates a perfect American image, one that stands for everything America stands for. This is powerful. By comparing a person to a highly symbolic figure, such as the United States, Obama invokes high emotions among the audience, or the pathos of the piece. Other abstract words include “opportunity”, “promise”, “commitments”, “dreams”, “peace”, “truth”, “allegiance”, “hope”. All of these, in one way or another, reflect what America is
The purpose of an “inaugural address” is to inform the people of his or her intentions as a leader. Two of the most prominent inaugural addresses throughout history are Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s and Barack Obama’s. Franklin Roosevelt’s inaugural address stands the test of time because it gave the American people hope that they may overcome the terrible Great Depression. Similarly, Barack Obama’s address is well known because it inspired millions that we will be lifted out of economic crisis, but it was also remembered as the first inaugural address from an African American president. The inauguration speeches of Franklin Roosevelt and Barack Obama use the rhetorical devices parallelism, allusions, and emotive language to convey their messages
Once more, President Obama presented the annual State of the Union Address to the American people. For the most part, Mr. Obama focused on the issues of immigration and health care reform, wages, energy, infrastructure and education; all the while particularly stressing the value of hard work. Like any other discourse, his speech employs various rhetorical devices as well as the elements of the “rhetorical triangle”: ethos, pathos and logos. Thus, in order to gauge the effectiveness of Mr. Obama’s address, one must examine the speech wholly on a rhetorical level, making sure to ignore any personal political views and notions of inaccuracy. Arguably, it also seems that of his various methods, the President’s most effective strategy was to mention personal anecdotes of people planted within his audience. Basically, it appears that the various rhetorical strategies utilized by President Obama in his address were mostly effective; while still, of course, holding some notable flaws.
A variety of techniques enable Obama to help convince his audience of his propositions. Obama’s
When looking back on the 18th of March, 2008, several do not believe that it is a significant date. It is not a holiday, nor a significant day in history, though, it is the day that Barack Obama delivered his “A More Perfect Union” speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke to the public concerning extremely racial comments his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, had made. Obama tries to persuade the people to understand that he does not agree with what Wright stated. His way of doing this is to connect with the audience using his background, he utilizes specific pronouns to connect him to the audience, then tells other people’s stories to allow the audience understand why he does not agree with what the pastor disclosed.
In his “State of the Union” speech, President Barack Obama effectively uses the rhetorical devices of Ethos, Pathos and Logos to convey a more convincing message to the citizens of the United States to urge them to follow the example of the many people that have made their nation greater.
He uses allusion and repetition of words to prove his points about racial discrimination. His main goal is for the country to stay united and put discrimination aside, and continue the path of the ones who came before us. Obama alludes to the civil war by saying,” continue the long march” which illustrates the march that the north did to the south to stop race discrimination, as well as the fact how the north opposed with slavery and wanted to make south stop (1). The other device he uses in his speech was the repetition of words by using the word “more” to express his main goal and focus. Although the country is so called “free” his main goal is still to improve America in every way possible and put race discrimination completely aside. In the speech, he expresses his tone by saying,” more just, more equal, more free, more caring, and more prosperous America.” Which goes to the fact that he is trying to even improve America more in every way possible. If we improve our country even more, then we will not be having any issues in our
Barack Obama came on to the political stage in 2004 when he gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Before this momentous occasion very few people had heard of the Junior Senator from Illinois – he had only been in the Senate for eight months. He titled the speech “The Audacity of Hope” to highlight the strength and resilience of the country and to encourage people struggling to rise out of poverty and despair and help them believe in a better future for themselves, their children, their families and their country.
Hope, by definition means to look forward to something with reasonable desire and confidence. Hope also means a person or thing in which expectations are centered. When discussing the word hope, one must consider the core values by which the word works around. You could hope for financial success, world peace, or simply hope for some good out of your day. In 2006, Barack Obama wrote the political biography The Audacity of Hope to outline his core political and spiritual beliefs, as well as his opinions on different aspects of American culture. The Illinois senator divided the book into nine chapters, each concentrating on both his own and the United States’ successes and failures in local and state politics. While revealing great leadership attributes, life experiences, personal qualities and hard facts, largely in anecdotal method, Barack Obama offers realistic, wide and thoughtful responses to today’s current domestic controversies using artistic appeals, such as ethos, pathos and logos. Senator Obama also gives the audience an in-depth analysis of the key policies that need to be changed for both Democrats and Republicans, and delivers an inherent message to offer hope to anyone, regardless of background or experiences. In the prologue, he discusses in great detail virtually every major political issue facing the American electorate today, offering his opinions and possible strategies for reform. “My motivation in entering politics was to cut through decades of polarizing partisanship and develop a moderate, effective approach to our government.” (Barackopedia.org). Obama notes that this same impulse, an impulse of a secure, functional and sustainable administration, prompted him to write The Audacity of Hope.
He makes sure his audience connects with him directly by making them feel at his level, and at hiss. This way he connects to the audience, and in exchange, helps his statement of unity. Using various examples of parallelism, anaphora and refrain, Obama brands the theme of equality and togetherness in our country throughout the speech, vital to gaining the respect of his audience. Obama recalls the ‘enduring strength of the constitution’ by delving into the past alluding to America’s allegiance to the Declaration of Independence by quoting “we hold these truths. that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
President Obama speaks in different registers throughout the speech--—effectively code switching to reach his different audiences and accomplish his purposes. He begins his speech by quoting the Bible, using that as a springboard into his
President Barack H. Obama has been always using rhetorical strategies in his political speeches. He used these strategies to present important points and views of his in front of public. Delivering points and views properly and logically got him to be the president in the first place. President Obama used mostly ethos and pathos, yet some logos to deliver his inaugural and the state of union speeches. Being that, he was able to reach the audience emotionally and make the speech flow efficiently while he preserved his credibility. Each speech has own audience that differs from the other. In the inaugural speech the audience was the public and therefor the speech was short and used short sentences that are easy to understand. On the other hand, the state of union speech’s audience was mostly the congers members and therefore the language was more specific and filled with political terminology. Both speeches will be discussed upon context and using ethos, pathos and logos consecutively.
The Audacity of Hope was given on July 27, 2004, as the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Throughout the speech, Barack Obama’s purpose is made clear by the description of the positive attributes of presidential candidate John Kerry. The Audacity of Hope made Obama further known in the world of politics, and a star among the Democratic Party. The strength and persuasive qualities of Barack Obama’s speech are created by repetition devices, various sentence structures, and abstract language.
In a quotation by Barack Obama on November 4, 2008, he says “That is the true genius of America-that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow”. Obama's inauguration speech mirrors the ideas expressed by that quote. Barack Obama's message in his speech is that through hope and change, we can pull the country out of recession, out of turmoil, and out of any difficult tasks we'll have ahead of us. What we have achieved shows that we can achieve it again, and the only reason these feats were achieved was because we were one nation working together. Obama successfully incorporate rhetoric into his speech to make it emotional, believable, and logical. His speech is a great representation of a well written rhetorical essay.
Nations mourned over the loss of South African President Nelson Mandela at the official memorial service held at Johannesburg, South Africa, on December 10, 2013. Amongst all the dignitaries was United States President Barack Obama, who gave his respect and praises Nelson Mandela in his memorial service speech. Through the incorporation of rhetorical devices, the passionate delivery and the language styles used, Barack Obama presented a memorable eulogy that inspired many and evoked emotion within all. This essay will discuss Obama's motivation and exigency for this speech, lucidly and persuasively argue the effectiveness of this speech, and critically analyse and evaluate rhetorical models and strategies, language choices and styles, speech structure and the delivery of this tribute.
..., had left the business world to teach in an inner-city Chicago school. But Ryan was forced to drop out of the race when scandalous details about his divorce were made public. On July 7, 2004 The Democratic National Convention chased Barack Obama to deliver the keynote speech. During his speech Obama stated there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America," he declared. "There's a United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America. There's a United States of America. Obama enclose his speech with phrases such like “the audacity of hope”. This phrase was later used for his second book titled The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (2006) which was a best seller. On January 4, 2005, Barack Obama was back as a U.S. senator, and his first law was passed with Republican Tom Coburn.