In rhetoric, communication can be interpreted as an event or a process. While events occur at a specific time, processes follow a continuous sequence of developments. In the Final State of the Union Address given by President Obama this year, the audience is able to evaluate the text based on Obama’s concerns during that specific time and how his goals contribute to the ongoing discourse of these issues throughout American history. By using analytic shifts, President Obama’s Final State of the Union Address can be interpreted as either an event or a process depending on how the audience evaluates the situation. By understanding events and processes individually, the audience will be able to apply these concepts to a particular text. Firstly, events occur at a specific time and place. According to the Gerard A. Hauser, these events …show more content…
While the address itself is an event, Obama discusses many conflicts that have been going on for decades, such as the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba. He mentions, “Fifty years of isolating Cuba has failed to promote democracy … That’s why we restored diplomatic relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people” (Obama). Not only does he mention history with the failure of cutting off ties with Cuba, but Obama also references to his trip to Cuba that he made in March 2016, two months after this speech was given. This event contributes to the overall sequence of the relationship between America and Cuba because while the two countries may have resolved their tensions, certain issues, such as trade and tourism, will continue to be discussed in the future. By evaluating Obama’s speech as a process, the audience can analyze how his plans and goals relating to Cuba contribute to the sequence of developments between these two countries throughout
The U.S.’s relationship with Cuba has been arduous and stained with mutual suspicion and obstinateness, and the repeated U.S. interventions. The Platt agreement and Castro’s rise to power, served to introduce the years of difficulty to come, while, the embargo the U.S. placed on Cuba, enforced the harsh feelings. The two major events that caused the most problems were the Bays of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis.
Despite these generalizations, of which the President failed to fully support, his speech was quite effective. Most notably, Mr. Obama used anecdotes for various reasons, such as serving as springboards for more relevant issues, as well as to, more importantly, demonstrate pathos and logos. The latter two rhetorical elements were effectively employed by President Obama, helping to spur emotion (pathos) as well as to both support his claims and form logical conclusions (logos). Though, as previously mentioned, Obama occasionally presents assumptions of which he fails to support, Mr. Obama’s mastery of rhetorical strategies dwarfs most of the downsides of his address. All in all, it appears to be quite evident that President Obama presents effective rhetoric within his State of the Union Address.
Thomas G. Paterson's essay, "Kennedy's Fixation with Cuba," is an essay primarily based on the controversy and times of President Kennedy's foreign relations with Cuba. Throughout President Kennedy's short term, he devoted the majority of his time to the foreign relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union. After the struggle of WW II, John F. Kennedy tried to keep a tight strong hold over Cuba as to not let Cuba turn to the Communist Soviet Union. Kennedy seen Cuba and the Soviet Union as a major threat to the United States. As Castro fell farther and farther into the Communist party, he inched his way closer and closer to becoming a close ally with the Soviet's, As Kennedy seen this happen before his eyes, he was astonished. Kennedy, a newly formed president, did not want to seem like the kind to just sit back and roll with the punches, he wanted immediate action taken for these measures. "As someone said, Cuba was one of the four-letter words of the 1960s" (268). Cuba was not viewed as a very potential power before Fidel Castro took office. It was viewed more as a neutral country that we sent aide and military supplies to in exchange for sugar and other products. When Castro took office, things drastically changed. He started taking back land that we had set aside for military bases, he wanted the American forces no more than what they had in Washington, and he openly defied orders from America. Unknown to Kennedy Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, was also watching everything that played out between Cuba and the United States. President Kennedy, later realizing, would make a few decisions for the worst. These decisions would haunt him for the re...
On September 8, 2009, President Barack Obama held a speach at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia, which was broadcast all over America to the millions of students, from kindergarden up to twelfth grade, he was hoping to reach with an important message. In the speech he stresses the importance of getting an education, and he reaches out to the students to tell them why they have a responsibility not only to themselves but also to the country; ”-if you quit on school- you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country”1. With this sentence he suddenly makes every single student listen, he makes the whole genration feel important, and hopefully this will motivate all of them to work harder in school, get an education
Wylie, Lana. Perceptions of Cuba: Canadian and American Policies in Comparative Perspective. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010, 59-61 (accessed December 18, 2013).
President Obama’s Address to the nation was presented on January 5, 2016. His speech was shown on all of the major network stations. The main goal of his speech was to get the point across to the nation about the increasing problem of gun use. His speech really focused on the issue of gun control and if it would benefit the country. Overall, the biggest idea of his Address was that gun control is a large issue in the United States. The way to prevent deaths caused by firearms can be prevented in other ways than taking peoples guns away. The examples brought up in this Address really stood out to me. The use of personal, national, and global examples really made his speech stronger on the topic of effectiveness.
White, Robert E. 2013. "After Chávez, a Chance to Rethink Relations With Cuba". The New
President Obama’s Inaugural Speech: Rhetorical Analysis. Barrack Obama’s inauguration speech successfully accomplished his goal by using rhetoric to ensure our nation that we will be in safe hands. The speech is similar to ideas obtained from the founding documents and Martin Luther King’s speech to establish ‘our’ goal to get together and take some action on the problems our country is now facing. As President Barack Obama starts his speech, he keeps himself from using ‘me’, ‘myself’, and ‘I’ and replacing it with ‘we’, ‘us’, and ‘together’ to achieve his ethos.
The traditional method is incredibly contextual, meaning, it looks deeply at the source, message, and audience as they interact within a give time span. Furthermore, this method is a critique of the assumed interaction between a speaker, text, or artifact and its intended audience. In contrast, a narrative criticism examines all facets of any rhetorical artifact for its form, structure, and pattern, treating it as a dramatic story that unfolds and reveals itself for a certain purpose. Additionally, narratives are primarily utilized as a cognitive instrument for comprehending significance.
The nation of Cuba has been at odds with the United States since Fidel Castro assumed power in 1959. The United States embargo and sanction on Cuba stems from the fact that the United States will not tolerate Communist governments and "the most important objective of the Cuban government is to remain in power at all costs," says Felix Martin, a professor at Florida’s Cuban Research Institute. The conflict and reason for why the embargo has stayed intact over the years can be summarized in three major points of dissent: Human rights violations, Guantanamo Bay, and the Cuban exile community.
On this day 191 years ago John Quincy Adams expressed his prediction for the future of Cuban-American contact. The Cuban wars of independence were only 15 years away from his prediction when he estimated. These independence wars continue to influence Cuba’s cultural and political attitude toward Europe and the United States; This in part due to the externalities involved in the remodeling of social structure in the aftermath of the revolution. The intentions and motives of each faction: rebels, United States government, Spanish government, United States public, and the Cuban public, varied widely to an extend that caused even more concern in the future. Depending on the point of view of an outsider the situation in Cuba seemed to be a continuation of revolution...
Grant-Davie’s article assesses “the elements of rhetorical situations that may help the audience understanding and responding to the rhetoric”(Grant-Davie 1997). In order for the audience to grasp what the author is trying to convey, he provides an example by stating, “When we study history, our first question may be “what happened?” but the more important question, the question whose answer offers hope of learning for the future as well as understanding the past, is “why did it happen?” (Grant-Davie 1997). Through this the author is trying to state that rather than looking from only one perspective, try using different perspectives to gain a more in-depth insight and true meaning of the topic that is being convey. He then talks about the different elements such as exigence, rhetor, audience, and constraints, which are key elements to use to rhetorically analyze a text. Grant-Davie then further talks about all the elements in depth to provide a better understanding to the audience to help them evolve their rhetorical knowledge.
However, the US played a much larger role in Cuba’s past and present than the building of casinos and the introduction of the first taints of corruption. In the past, even before Batista, Americans were resented by Cubans because the Americans made a lot of Cuba’s decisions. Under Batista, 80% of Cuban imports came from the US, and the US controlled at least 50% of sugar, utilities, phones and railroads. If Cuba was a business in the stock markets, then the US would have been close to owning 50% of its shares. When combined with a long history of US-backed leaders, and US involvement, it is understandable that Cubans begrudged the Americans....
Rhetoric is the art of effective speaking or writing, and persuasion. Most people use rhetoric numerous of times in their everyday life without their concern or knowing.
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.