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On March 18, 2008, Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Barack Obama delivered a speech named “A More Perfect Union.” In this speech, he responded to a controversy created by Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor. Wright made several controversial statements, some of which were considered against America. The speech was delivered as a result of the controversy because many Americans thought that Obama also believed in what Wright was saying. In the speech, he addresses the subject of racial tension, white privilege, and race and inequality in the United States. Obama uses several rhetorical devices to emphasize what he believed in, in order to unite the American people, while attempting to eliminate racial discrimination in the United …show more content…
States. Presidential Candidate Barack Obama talked about achieving various things during his presidential campaign. However, the most important task he focused on was forming a more perfect union. He does not want America to be just perfect, he wants it to be the most perfect nation. He wants America to be a place where there is no discrimination, and a place where everyone can get an equal opportunity. He first introduces this idea through the use of repetition. Obama explains that he wants to continue from where the previous presidents left off and make America “more just, more equal, more free, more caring, and more prosperous”(1). The use of repetition is effective because it places an emphasis on the goals he is trying to achieve. The purpose of repeating the word “more” is to remind the audience and make them aware about what America needs to be like, and what we can do to achieve that goal. This makes us as an audience question ourselves if we could have a more perfect union when some of the citizens do not get even the basic rights, just because of their skin color. To further explain this thought, he uses parallelism, ”more just, more equal, more free, more caring.” Through the use of parallelism, Obama supports his idea of forming a perfect union. He states that in order to create a better future for our children and grandchildren, citizens will have to come together. We have to overcome our challenges together regardless of our different stories, culture, beliefs, and color. To make this more effective, Obama uses pathos by mentioning his own story about where he grew up and his family. He expresses his life and diverse background and how he comes from a multicultural family. He connects his own story to his campaign and makes the audience understand of what he is trying to achieve. This appeals to the emotions of the audience by giving them a clue about what he went through in his life and what needs to be fixed to make things better. Next, Obama discusses the racial injustice in today's time through the use of several devices.
With the use of pathos, Obama presents examples of the injustice that exists in our nation and argues for a change. He mentions that the previous legislations had done very little for segregated schools and nothing has changed even “50 years after the Brown v. Board of Education” (4). The poor quality of education that the segregated school provided explains the reason behind the achievement gap between the blacks and whites. By giving an example of racial inequality, Obama appeals to the emotions of his audience to highlight the need of racial unity. Since generations after generations have worked on this and there is still no progress, he wants his audience to take charge and come together to fix the problem for a better future. Pathos is achieved because of the powerful allusion to race and racial conflicts in our community. It forces the audience to think about what happened during the Brown v. Board of Education and the effect it still has today. The Supreme Court declared separate public schools for blacks and whites to be unconstitutional. To understand the problem better, he reminds the audience about how we arrived at that problem. Many differences and inequalities today, between the African American community and the White community, exists because it was passed down from the previous generations. It makes the audience think about how the previous generations have …show more content…
affected our lives today. Obama also refers to the Jim Crow Laws that were created in the 1890s to separate the blacks from the whites. He mentions that we still see practices of these laws in the schools in the United States today. By referring to these historical events and the connection it still has today, Obama reminds us of the country’s racial history. He appeals to the audience emotions about the progress of this country on the basis of racial tension. Lastly, Obama explains the idea of being one.
He explains the idea of being equal in everything. The idea of everyone coming together for a better future and writing our own destiny. He establishes this idea through the use of a metaphor: “The white women struggling to break the glass ceiling” (6). Glass ceiling refers to a barrier that is keeping the white women from rising above and beyond a certain level. It is a barrier in the careers of high achieving women. The barrier through which women see higher positions but cannot reach them. It also explains the circumstances that women undergo in order to achieve something. This allows the audience to think about the ongoing injustice and the changes that needs to be made in every aspects of our lives. Also, as the quote goes on, Obama encourages the African American community to fight for their justice. He tells his audience that if we want to end discrimination we have to work together and take responsibilities in our own hands. He encourages the audience to come together, as a nation, for better healthcare, better jobs, and better schools. Finally, the use of assonance, “Aspirations of all Americans,” is an effective strategy because it provides an emphasis on the things he is trying to achieve. By using the word “all”, he connects each and every American to each other, unites them, and tries to explain that in the end we all face the same
problem. In conclusion, by using a variety of rhetorical devices, Obama achieves his goals of encouraging the American people to change the racial tension in this country and unite to fight against the issues. Obama’s use of the literary techniques, such as allusion, metaphor, parallelism and the use of appeals, made this speech a success. At last, the audience is left feeling inspired and wanting to change our society for a better future. The main motive behind the speech and Obama’s campaign was a call to all Americans: Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, and Asians, to come together on the basis of hopes and concerns that everyone relates to, especially economic ones.
Roy Peter Clark, author of “A More Perfect Union”: Why It Worked, takes a stance on President Barack Obama’s speech while analyzing it. President Barack Obama delivered a speech titled “A More Perfect Union.” His speech focused on the prominent issue of racism in America. In this article, Clark talks about President Obama’s known power and brilliance. Clark makes references and comparisons to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and W.EB. DuBois. “A More Perfect Union” features writing techniques that makes the message more defined and effective. President Obama utilizes four closely related rhetorical strategies. Clark broadly explains the purpose of the rhetorical strategies. Allusion, parallelism, two-ness, and autobiography helped to shape President Obama’s speech that that was meant to create
In the book Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer wrote about Christopher McCandless, a nature lover in search for independence, in a mysterious and hopeful experience. Even though Krakauer tells us McCandless was going to die from the beginning, he still gave him a chance for survival. As a reader I wanted McCandless to survive. In Into the Wild, Krakauer gave McCandless a unique perspective. He was a smart and unique person that wanted to be completely free from society. Krakauer included comments from people that said McCandless was crazy, and his death was his own mistake. However, Krakauer is able to make him seem like a brave person. The connections between other hikers and himself helped in the explanation of McCandless’s rational actions. Krakauer is able to make McCandless look like a normal person, but unique from this generation. In order for Krakauer to make Christopher McCandless not look like a crazy person, but a special person, I will analyze the persuading style that Krakauer used in Into the Wild that made us believe McCandless was a regular young adult.
The Letter from Birmingham Jail was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of several civil rights activists who were arrested in Birmingham Alabama, after protesting against racial injustices in Alabama. Dr. King wrote this letter in response to a statement titled A Call for Unity, which was published on Good Friday by eight of his fellow clergymen from Alabama. Dr. King uses his letter to eloquently refute the article. In the letter dr. king uses many vivid logos, ethos, and pathos to get his point across. Dr. King writes things in his letter that if any other person even dared to write the people would consider them crazy.
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.
When Barack Obama ran for presidency, there were a lot of questions about his race, color, and whether he was born in the U.S.. The comments from his pastor Jeremiah Wright put him in an awkward situation, so he decided to give this speech to prove the point that we are all the same and live in the same country, so there shouldn’t be any discrimination among anyone. In his speech, Obama uses rhetorical devices to explain how race discrimination is affecting our country and us in every way possible. The use of rhetorical devices in this speech has strong effects on the audience. The use of allusion, symbolism, optimistic tone, and repetition of words gives the speech a strong argumentative tone. He argues the fact that to be able to achieve such big goals and how out country was supposed to be from the beginning, we need to stay united and rely on younger
“A More Perfect Union” was delivered by Barack Obama on March 18, 2008. At the time her gave the speech he was senator and running in the president election. Obama responded to his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, and also discussed the issue with race in America. This problem is important to us as a whole, because we went through plenty of racism in the past. He wants the prevent those incidents from according again. He did an excellent job using rhetoric tools to support his beliefs, which led to a successful election.
Through capturing these events and images in the minds of his audience, Obama writes, “Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world” (14). Obama’s references of biblical and historical events which are known today from history as powerful stories of difficulty and perseverance is used to describe the struggles of racial inequality. As racial inequality itself is a huge problem which creates separation between races even till today, Obama’s allusion to these events match well with putting into perspective
Pollan’s article provides a solid base to the conversation, defining what to do in order to eat healthy. Holding this concept of eating healthy, Joe Pinsker in “Why So Many Rich Kids Come to Enjoy the Taste of Healthier Foods” enters into the conversation and questions the connection of difference in families’ income and how healthy children eat (129-132). He argues that how much families earn largely affect how healthy children eat — income is one of the most important factors preventing people from eating healthy (129-132). In his article, Pinsker utilizes a study done by Caitlin Daniel to illustrate that level of income does affect children’s diet (130). In Daniel’s research, among 75 Boston-area parents, those rich families value children’s healthy diet more than food wasted when children refused to accept those healthier but
In 2008, democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama gave a speech, now named “A More Perfect Union”, in response to the controversy over his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, making some very racist remarks against whites and accusing the United States of bringing on the September 11 attacks by spreading terrorism. In his speech, Obama uses many rhetorical strategies including repetition, parallelism, allusion, and metaphors in order to make his statement that, regardless of race, the American people need to work together side by side as one in this time of need to achieve the same goal— achieving a better, more perfect union of America.
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”.
In a quote by John Mill, “Does fining a criminal show want of respect for property, or imprisoning him, for personal freedom? Just as unreasonable is it to think that to take the life of a man who has taken that of another is to show want of regard for human life. We show, on the contrary, most emphatically our regard for it, by the adoption of a rule that he who violates that right in another forfeits it for himself, and that while no other crime that he can commit deprives him of his right to live, this shall.” Everyone’s life is precious, but at what price? Is it okay to let a murderer to do as they please? Reader, please take a moment and reflect on this issue. The issue will always be a conflict of beliefs and moral standards. The topic
The movie trailer “Rio 2”, shows a great deal of pathos, ethos, and logos. These rhetorical appeals are hidden throughout the movie trailer; however, they can be recognized if paying attention to the details and montage of the video. I am attracted to this type of movies due to the positive life messages and the innocent, but funny personifications from the characters; therefore, the following rhetorical analysis will give a brief explanation of the scenes, point out the characteristics of persuasive appeals and how people can be easily persuaded by using this technique, and my own interpretation of the message presented in the trailer.
In “A More Perfect Union”, Obama asked the audience to view themselves through the eyes of the others (Terrill 371). Instead of imposing a moral superiority of one side of the audience like Lincoln did or telling the audience to ignore the diversity, Obama asked the people to embrace their differences and acknowledge the others. In referring to the perspective of black people, he said, “A lack of economic opportunity among black men and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family contributed to the erosion of black families...” Meanwhile, to show how some white people might feel, he narrated, “...when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudice, resentment builds over time.” By juxtaposing two different perspectives, Obama tried to ask for agreement that people’s anxiety over racial problems is
We may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction. Barack Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union” (Nov. 17, 2008) captivates our nation with its thought out structure of the division and inequality in America. Obama successfully used allusion and repetition. Along with personal anecdotes to identify with the audience.
Jonathan Kozol revealed the early period’s situation of education in American schools in his article Savage Inequalities. It seems like during that period, the inequality existed everywhere and no one had the ability to change it; however, Kozol tried his best to turn around this situation and keep track of all he saw. In the article, he used rhetorical strategies effectively to describe what he saw in that situation, such as pathos, logos and ethos.