Rhetorical Analysis: A More Perfect Union

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.

“ A More Perfect Union” is a speech delivered by the presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008. The speech was a response to the controversial comments about race segregation in America made by his former pastor J. Wright. Obama revealed his personal history as a man of color, living in the United States. He encouraged the nation to end the racial division, to overlook all the issues and unite to form A More Perfect Union .

In the online article found on the CNN website titled, “U.S gun violence: The story in charts and graphs” the article provides the readers with multiple graphs from bar graphs to pie charts. The graph I will be looking at critically is titled “Firearm background checks by months since 2012.” It’s important to note that this article was written in December of 2015. For this reason, the graph stops on December 2015. Before providing the graph to its readers the author states that the year of 2015 was “was a record year for background checks on guns. Some have pointed out the requests for background checks have gone up after mass shootings, the idea being that shootings cause people to worry about their safety and buy a gun to protect themselves.”

We may have different religions, different colored skin, different languages, but we all belong to one human race. The text, “A More Perfect Union,” is a written transcript of Barack Obama’s speech he gave in 2008 in front of millions of people. He spoke about his life story and about how racial discrimination should be fixed. The website article, “Civil Rights Movement,” tells about the events leading to and during the moments in our history where African Americans stood up against whites to gain justice. To make a better future, people of diversity need to come together as a whole to protect their rights.

Paul Chappell, the peace literacy director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, will be a keynote speaker at the upcoming G3X Conference at Mihaylo College this August. The advocate for peaceful and nonviolent solutions to personal and global challenges shares his ethos and passion.

In Barack Obama’s speech, “A More Perfect Union,” Obama made an effort to educate the American people on the history and importance of race in America. He explained how our nations founding fathers developed our Constitution based on the idea that all men are created equal, without actually practicing this idea themselves. He used the words of the Constitution to discuss the current racial issues and to state his concern of our imperfect nation. This was all in response to the very controversial remarks Barack Obama’s pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright had previously stated, which created much unease among Americans. Obama felt the need to address our nation about this specific problem, since he identifies as a black man himself, and offer a solution to end this built up anger and discrimination between the American people. In his speech, “A More Perfect Union,” Obama is able to clearly convey the specific racial problem at hand that created the exigency for this speech, as well as effectively share his own personal connection with this issue, in order to help fix our country and work together to find a beneficial solution.

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

The United States, as many believe, is the land of opportunity, however, when looking at individual states, towns, and cities, this popular slogan may seem false to some. Within each state, all schools, such as middle and high schools, may not receive or offer equity. In an effort to revel inequalities within school systems, I will discuss the differences between schools in my town, the apparent lack of public concern about schooling inequality, and what changes could be made in an effort to reduce schooling inequality.

The speech titled “A More Perfect Union” was delivered by Senator Barack Obama on March 18, 2008 near the historical site of the signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union”1 - On March the 18th 2008 Barack Obama opened his speech on race, in Philadelphia, with this sentence. From the open sentence you can see that this speech isn’t any speech, perform by any orator. It’s a speech with a main message, performed for the people, to creates a brighter future for all the American people and to change history.

On March 18, 2008, Senator Barack Obama gave the “More Perfect Union Speech” at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The power and excellence behind his speech made all who listened think about race and the racial divide and conflicts that are so prevalent in America.

Barack Obama's powerful diction creates hope for the future of the United States with word choices such as “continue,” “shifted” and “ambitions.” Barack’s shift from informal to formal diction constructs an image of unity through the usage of simple, personal pronouns, such as “we” and “us.” The shifts from informal to formal and back appeal to the emotions of the audience because they feel as if Obama is talking directly to them. His allusions to the Bible are sentimental because when he says "the God given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness" he creates a bond between himself and his audience. His words have a motivating connotation that appeal to both logos and pathos. The way in which Barack Obama presents his ideas allows his audience to have confidence in him and his role as president.

In Obama’s speech “A More Perfect Union”, he emphasizes the importance of unity among Americans. He wants people to overlook their ethnic backgrounds and join together as one. This speech brought out many points that Americans should take into consideration. That even though we are all from different backgrounds, we should overlook our differences to make us a stronger nation. Obama’s speech was inspiring in some aspects, but in a way his speech also is controversial.

“A More Perfect Union” speech was given by President Barack Obama on March 18, 2008 near the historical site of the signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. President Obama right off the bat, used character based appeals, logical appeals, and emotional appeals, throughout his speech. Obama’s remarks on the racial equality in our country, was both logical and personal to the audience. He would like for us to change our ways and views towards others. Not only does he go to explain his life story as colored man, but as a human being. He tried to input ways he could relate to all of us.

Do you believe that the U.S. needs to be more “united” to be able to become better as a country? Former president, Barack Obama does. “A More Perfect Union” is the name of a speech given by Barack Obama in 2008 for his presidential campaign. In his speech, Obama builds an argument on how United States citizens must come together and look past racial and ethnical differences in order to better our country. Throughout his speech, Obama states various reasons to support his argument. Some of the many reasons include: the problem of recurring racism, the fight and work of getting equal rights from generations before, and the need to come together to be able to face certain problems. Along with these reasons, Barack Obama also uses many