Rhetorical Analysis Of 'Same-Sex Marriage Ruling'

The “Same-Sex Marriage Ruling’’ speech was a speech given by Barack Obama on June 26,2015 in the Rose Garden outside of the Supreme Court in Washington. The purpose of the speech was to let the world know what history was taking place, how big of a step it was towards equality, and to enlighten the world on the fact that love has no boundaries. The speech is considered a seminal US document because it has a historical and civil significance . A careful literary analysis of the speech will reveal why this speech continues to resonate in the American consciousness.

First of all, Barack Obama draws our attention to the theme of equality when he refers to how that morning the Supreme Court recognized that the Constitution guarantees marriage equality. This is significant because now all relationships whether it be same sex or different sexes can now get married, and now the marriage right that guaranteed marriage equality really does now. This statement gives significance to the setting because people thought same-sex marriage would never be allowed and now the Supreme Court is changing that.

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The rhetorical device that he employs is “anaphora”. He employs this rhetorical device when he says: “It’s a victory for gay and lesbian couples who have fought so long for their basic civil rights. It’s a victory for their children, whose families will now be recognized as equal to any other. It’s a victory for the allies and friends and supporters who spent years, even decades, working and praying for change to come.” This is example of anaphora because he uses regular repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases or clauses. For example, the phrase Obama repeated was “It’s a victory”. The effect that this has on the speech is that it makes readers think how hard it must of been to obtain this goal and how hard they had to fight for it to had been referred to as a