Rhetorical Analysis Of Let's Move

In the speech “Remarks to the NAACP,” the First Lady Michelle Obama uses rhetorical appeals to communicate with the audience in order to accentuate her “Let’s Move” program, consisting of four modules. Mrs. Obama’s says parents need to have access to information regarding healthy decisions because parents affect their child’s health. The second component is bringing healthy food into schools, forcing the youth to eat one healthy meal a day. Finding motivation for exercising is hard for some, thus the third component of “Let’s Move” is trying to incorporate daily exercising into a normal schedule. Finally, the fourth component is providing families with the correct food to become healthy. Mrs. Obama urges the NAACP to help her in the fight to

eliminate obesity among African American youth and to promote her “Let’s Move” program. Throughout her speech, Mrs. Obama uses ethos and logos to endorse her campaign.
Mrs. Obama’s primary audience is the NAACP since that is who she is directly addressing, however every mother out there is also being addressed throughout the speech. She directly relates herself as one of the mothers during the speech as she says, “Many of you probably grew up like I did-in a community…each other’s kids.” (421) She uses this quote to build her credibility as a normal mother, not as the First Lady. The audience can now relate to Mrs. Obama easier by the use of ethos to promote herself as a credible source to the audience. Mrs. Obama incorporates her childhood life experiences on healthy eating decisions to persuade the audience that she is educated on nutrition and can follow through with her program, “We never ate anything fancy, but the portions sizes were reasonable and there were rarely seconds-maybe for your father, but not for you.” (422) The NAACP however is the main audience because they are the people who can actually help her with promoting her ideas as they have more power than your average mother.
Mrs. Obama is a credible source throughout the article because she is a mother of two African American children and wants only the best for them like any other listening to this speech. She connects herself to the audience in a normal fashion by saying, “People, that’s half of our children.” (420) The word “our” is a key word since this relates her with every mother wanting to hear her speech, thus making her a credible source. Her credibility however does not just stop at being a mother of two, she is the First Lady and mentions she has the power to push this program through. Many other people do not have the wealth nor popularity to advertise a program like this, but Mrs. Obama does. This makes the audience support her because they now know they can put full trust in her, “And as First Lady…ensure that we meet them.” (428) As First Lady of the United States, Mrs. Obama has the power to create a nationwide program to limit obesity.
Obesity in America has become widespread and Mrs. Obama is a big advocate of limiting childhood obesity. Throughout her speech she mentions ideas from research she has conducted that would help limit obesity in the youth, especially for African American children. Many African American societies are more prone to obesity since there are less supermarkets in many their neighborhoods. Mrs. Obama suggests a program that would bring supermarkets to communities that are fortunate enough to have one that sells healthy food, tying into the fourth point of her program. (431) This allows the communities to make healthier eating decisions, ultimately limiting obesity. Mrs. Obama uses logos here as she compares her idea to what Pennsylvania is already doing under the Fresh Food Financing Initiative, which has brought over 80 supermarkets to communities lacking healthy food options. (431) Introducing supermarkets gives an opportunity to the less fortunate, and studies show people actually are eating healthier, “One study…additional supermarket in their community.” (427) Eating healthy at home is one part of the problem, as children need to eat healthy at school also. Mrs. Obama suggests that school lunches should be smaller portions and healthier as mentioned, “And we’re working…more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.” (426) Bringing smaller portions into school lunches achieves Mrs. Obama’s second point of offering healthier food at school. By offering healthier food at school, it will allow the youth to eat at least one healthy meal a day and hopefully incorporate these healthy eating habits into the household for dinner. Obesity is affected by someone’s eating habits, however obesity can be lowered before a child is even capable of choosing their own food by educating the parents.
Eating healthy is not the only thing that limits childhood obesity. Parents that are aware of obesity and its struggles are less likely to have an obese child. Mrs. Obama’s first main point is the parents need to be educated on obesity. Research shows that approximately 40 percent of African American infants are not breastfed. (429) Breastfeeding is shown to be a preventive to obesity, even at such a young age. Mrs. Obama supports breastfeeding as obesity can be limited if parents would become educated on breastfeeding and its advantages. A program called the WIC is used to back breastfeeding, showing the positives of breastfeeding to the public, “And we know this… providing new support to low-income moms who want to try so that they get the support they need.” (429) Mrs. Obama uses logos to introduce breastfeeding by using factual information that says breastfeeding can limit obesity.
Childhood obesity cannot be lowered by just eating healthy.

Mrs. Obama uses research to prove her point about youth exercising saying, “Experts recommend at 60 minutes of exercise a day of activity.” (426) Mrs. Obama says that this is the bare minimum amount of exercise needed each day to prevent someone from becoming obese. Exercising does not have be sports related, but can be anything from walking to the store or school. The third point of “Let’s Move” is to encourage the youth to exercise for at least 60 minutes a day. However exercising may seem boring to some, but Mrs. Obama says school recess and physical education classes will count towards the 60 minutes per day, “And we’re working to get more kids participating in daily physical education classes and to get more schools offering recess fir their students.” (426) The current generation tends to spend most of their time on the couch, thus why under the “Let’s Move” program Mrs. Obama sets a goal, “We’ve set a goal…by 50 percent in the next five years.” (426) Mrs. Obama wants half the kids that go to school to not ride transportation and become active by just going to school. Children who ride their bike to school or walk have a higher chance of escaping

obesity.
Mrs. Obama’s speech is a combination of logos and ethos to make her speech credible and relatable to the audience. She her main point revolves around the four points of the “Let’s Move” program, which was introduced as an awareness to childhood obesity. Mrs. Obama ties in the four points throughout her speech to promote credibility and relay factual information to her supporters, the NAACP and every mother in the country. She in return wants her supporters backing to sponsor her “Let’s Move” program and move it to the next level. She cannot do it by herself and needs a large organization resembling the NAACP to assist her.