Diana J. Park
Professor Eleanor A. Lockhart
Rhetorical Criticism
2 October 2015
A Neo-Aristotelian Analysis of President Obama’s: Oval Office Address on BP Oil Spill & Energy On June 15, 2010, President Barack Obama formally addresses the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to inform people of his plans to contain the oil spill and the nation 's need for clean energy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze President Obama’s speech on the BP oil spill using Foss’ neo-Aristotelian method of rhetorical criticism, by which I will reconstruct the context of the speech, apply four out of the five canons (excluding the canon of memory), and evaluate the speech’s effect on the intended audience. The first step to reconstructing the context of the speech requires me to provide background information on President Barack Obama. According to Biography.com, in 2008, Obama became the 44th president, and the United States’ first African American president. It is my opinion that much of Obama’s campaign strategy which focused on “change” as a common theme in his slogans was directed at liberals, African Americans, and young voters. Biography.com highlights that in his first term of presidency, Obama passed a $787 billion stimulus bill as well as the affordable care act. President Obama has become an influential leader that is known for his liberal values and determination to act on economic and social policies, such as these. Next, I will examine the occasion: the BP oil spill. Writer Kayla
Obama’s speech demonstrates certain points to engage the audience and to create a connection to emphasize its presence in the speech. One impactful technique he used is his anecdotes to prove his credibility to gain trust within the students. One anecdote that he clearly states is about African Americans are treated different decades ago and how certain races are not able to have the job they wanted, due to their skin tone. Furthermore, he adds his own research on this topic by explaining how “no blacks CEOs of Fortune 500 companies” (Mccaskill). This creates a sense of wisdom and satisfaction because, over time, society changed their views within people of color
In response to the controversial sermon given by his pastor and the racial remarks that followed him during his 2008 campaign, then Senator Barack Obama, was inherently forced into delivering a speech that would address the comments and prove to the American people that he did in fact shared their “American Dream” and was not an Anti-America charity case. Obama gave his famous “A More Perfect Union” speech in Philadelphia, where he seized the opportunity to address the controversy as an indication of a much larger issue, race relations in America and introduce his mission of moving the country toward “a more perfect union.” His speech often coined, “the Race Speech”, had several factors play into its success, one factor being the way the speech was delivered, his speech incorporated the jeremiad form and constitutive form of rhetoric, the use of those two forms helped Obama address the issue while at the same time creating an identity that would encompass all Americans who would then come together in this identity and work toward the solution of the race issue and providing the “American Dream” for everyone.
To find a piece that is currently looked upon as a paragon of rhetorical strategies, scholars would look towards President Abraham Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address”. This speech was given at the start of his second presidential inauguration with the purpose of establishing his point of view on the war and its effects. To elaborate his thoughts and hopes for the future of the United States of America, Lincoln’s “Second Inaugural Address” is riddled with rhetorical strategies such as installation of self-credibility, deliberately designated diction, and carefully supplemented repetition to succeed in his desire to sway the audience towards his views.
431 BCE was the year that the end of the Peloponnesian war. A great amount of lives of Athenians were lost, and the city of Athens held a public funeral to keep up with the traditions. At these funerals, a citizen was chosen to give a speech at this event. And happen so, Pericles was chosen to give at this funeral oration, not knowing that it would become one of the most famous speech of all time. Future world leaders would use his speech to inspire their own, including Abraham Lincoln’s “The Gettysburg Address”. Even though, they may be both addressing the people of their nations to keep fighting and mourn the lives lost in these battles, there are differences of how they used rhetorical analysis in their speeches.
On top of that big fat slab of equality and togetherness, President Obama also begins to usher in a sense of endless possibilities and hope through the audience. He juxtaposes the “ending of war” to the beginning of economic recovery (Isn’t that a lie in the state we’re in?). This solidifies hope and the use parallelism, “ we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together". He begins again, this time using a parallelism that is used throughout the rest of the speech, “we, the people,” to even further establish togetherness and also builds Obama’s presidential
Senator Barack Obama had many issues throughout his campaign. Obama’s speech, “A More Perfect Union”, delivered on March 18, 2008, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, conveyed many issues concerning racism throughout the United States, but it starts out stating how the founders of this nation constructed the Declaration of Independence, creating all men equal. Obama then begins to talk about his pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and his racial remarks against America and Israel, as it is “divisive at a time when we need unity”, referring to the “ two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis” going on at the time. (Obama 2) Obama remarks “I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas,” (Obama 1) because there is much criticism in his campaign due to his race. Obama argues that race is paralyzing our nation, and that it is still a major issue due to white privilege, and racial inequality. In the end, Obama hopes to move past the “racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years,” (Obama 6) and wishes to improve health care, jobs, schools, and other social issues for the United States.
Obama’s speech on race was a part of his campaign while he was running for the presidential election in 2009. He speaks to the American people with the purpose to gather them and with spirit of fellowship to creates a unity and patriotism. A unity where everyone stands together and in jointly could make the world a better place for everyone, no matter
Within his speech, Barack Obama admits that the United States is in the "midst of a crisis" but he believes that it can change, but he also makes it clear that the change cannot happen overnight. Obama's inspirational tone stirs up the nation with phrases such as “dust ourselves off” and “bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions.” Barack Obama's message persuades his audience because the message is believable and delivered by an honest man. In his previous speeches, Obama spoke of race and prejudice, an economic crisis and his hopes and fears with such intelligence that when
Though, knowing some of Obama’s background, it seems as if he was trying to get a point across. The point I have mention before, our differences should not separate us but unite us. Obama speech is inspiring, because he mentions how we all come from different backgrounds and we have our racist view points, but these points are simply from the past in which hardly anyone today has lived in. If we could overlook all the bad from the past and the negativity from being from different communities, we could have a better and stronger nation. Obama also uses his own background as a way to show how we can overcome different ethic backgrounds. It may be hard in some ways but as he states in his speech, “These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.” We are all apart of America, a country that we love, and we are surrounded by the people we love. Yes, we do come from all sorts of ethnic backgrounds, and some may be a mix of many. This is the inspiring part from his speech. Even though he gets many view points from his family and is from a mix of ethnic backgrounds, all that matters is that his family is apart of him and he loves them for who they are not the ethnicity.
In this part of the speech Obama is using ethos. He is trying to be trustworthy. From line 95 Obama again set himself up as the country father. He explains that there is no excuse for having a bad attitude and also no excuse for not trying hard and giving your best towards education.
In a world of politics, many politicians are involved in negative campaigns and as a result healthy conversation among politicians often lead to a disaster. With the endless political news cycles, rhetoric is essential for politicians to deliver their speeches. Therefore, in this essay, the style and delivery of Bill Clinton’s speech at the Democratic National Convention will be examined. It will be using the three main appeals of Aristotle’s mode of persuasion, the five essential rhetoric elements and the classical canons to analysed the speech and evaluate its effectiveness all of which will contribute to its persuasive power to leave a memorable impression in the minds of the audience.
The speech was held by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, at the DC High School as an educational event for the sophomores. The overriding subject of the speech is education which is an area Michelle Obama and her husband, Barack Obama, has spent a lot of time and resources on. After the introduction of the speech she speaks of a goal that her husband has set for America. She tells that it should be the goal of the entire country to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world in 2020. She explains that it is very important because America was number one in college graduates a generation ago and now they are
Primarily, Obama’s victory speech was about his winning the election for the office as the president. President Barack Obama delivered his speech on Nov. 4, 2008, in Grant Park, Chicago. The speech was a powerful, positive, and persuasive, also it inspired the audience. The main point of the speech is to cover three important pictures at the beginning, he drew a comparison between the past and present, by answering a rhetorical question “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible” (Obama 685). Subsequently, he stated the gratitude for his running mate Joe Biden, campaign manager and his lovely family. Also, Obama was formal and candid to describe the catastrophic financial crises that happened in 2008 and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the end of his speech, he painted a big picture of the upcoming change, by giving a comparison of women rights to vote and slavery between hundred years ago and now, also by mentioning and inspiring the younger generation. He also advised the American people to keep moving into the future and the adapting to the progressive movement theme.
In the beginning of his speech, Obama discusses his family and their past, how his grandfather served the United States and was a veteran of World War II. He speaks about the name that was given to him, Obama, as being African and how his parents felt that it isnt your name that takes you places and makes you who you are, it your character, strength, and personality. He also descibes his encounters with that he
The last part is emphasized by Obama because he gives rhetorical questions (“…, what change will they see?”, l. 97, “What progress will we have made?”, ll. 97-98) that should make the people think about what they did, what they changed and what they