How Is Ethos Used In Obama's Inaugural Address

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President Obama's Inaugural-address was one that was filled with many rhetorical devices but the ones I will be evaluating are the ones he extracted from the ancient Aristotle. Aristotle had three criteria when it came to making a piece of writing rhetorical, meaning persuasive. These three criteria were the use of ethos, logos, and pathos. The appeal to emotion, logic, and even credibility. In Obamas speech you can find a great deal of pathos because he wants to show that he is a credible leader and how he understands the great honor that has been given to him. When he shows ethos it is bestowing strong emotions to Americans to motivate them for the revival of the United States. Logos was used to show how he had logical steps to take …show more content…

In the beginning when he begins to say, “Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many.(par. 5)” This is an emotional appeal that is calling to a lot grievances that all the Americans have been affected by in one way or the other. Calling attention to how America is in a crisis and being able to use it to have the audience invest in what Obama is saying and connect with him, is a very strategic use of ethos and accomplishes what it needs to. Another use of pathos that peaked my interest in particular was when he stated, “A man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served in a local restaurant can now stand before you to take the most sacred oath (par 31)” This shows how great a change there has been in America in their ideology of how everyone is equal. It appeals since he is the first President to have roots in the African American heritage. I believe that this emits strong emotions because equality was one of the biggest problems in America, and what he stated really shows how America has become a place that has advanced far and fast in terms of equality. Also when he states “The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation:  the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. (par 8)” Again Obama calls towards equality in America being one of the main calls when it comes to ethos. This is because Obama is personally an example of what this equality has been able to make it possible for him to be the President. It is a very emotional subject as well as the “pursuit of happiness”, something brought back from the constitution of the United States when it was

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