Preview

Obama's "A More Perfect Union" Speech

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2147 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Obama's "A More Perfect Union" Speech
Chris Ryden Ryden 1
Mrs. Wenker
Engl 1310.23
20 Sept, 2012
Perfect Union?
Barrack Obama's speech of "A more Perfect Union" uses rhetoric to describe his personal life and how it correlates to racial problems across the United States to help with his political campaign. A lot of his speech was meant to put certain views into new perspectives, to interest people, such as myself, and possibly, unintentionally, anger others as well. He also writes about topics that have meanings under the surface of the words, some things one must think about to uncover the true meaning of what Obama meant. He also writes about things we as a country have to do to head towards our "Perfect Union". He uses many tools of rhetoric such as: Occasion and exigence, historical and cultural context, Kairos, the rhetor, the audience, and ethical appeal. Obama first addressed the current period of time, reflecting back to the market crash, the origins of the nation, and other difficulties that tested the courage of our convictions. President Obama said that we are tested at this moment of time, one year after he took office. He said that the worst of the crisis is over, but there is still devastation and stressed that all Americans share the nation's difficulties and should work together to fix them. He finished the opening stanza of his speech by saying that he had never been more hopeful about America's future as he was at that moment. His second key point, after his seven minute motivational opening, was the economy, which he defined as his most urgent issue when he took office. He said that he hated the bank bailout but he said unemployment might be twice as bad if it did not take place. Economic growth was next on his speech agenda. Unemployment benefits have been extended
Ryden 2 and twenty-five tax cuts have been put in place. President Obama suggested two million more people would be unemployed without the recovery act money spent by the government

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the paper, the author identified the rhetorical imprint as her researching method for this paper. According to Burgchardt (1985), a rhetorical imprint is “a consistent underlying pattern of distinctive verbal characteristics that supports the content of numerous speeches and articles” (p.441). Therefore, this paper is to find out the repeated rhetorical strategy in Obama’s…

    • 56 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Five score years ago, a great american, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation proclamation.” “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to proposition that all men are created equal.” The first quote was written by Martin Luther King Jr., and the second quote was written by Abraham Lincoln. They both use rhetoric in their speeches such as amplification. This paper will discuss how both of the writers uses rhetoric.…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    On Tuesday January 20th 2009 in Washington D.C., our 44th president Barack Obama stood before a record breaking crowd of Americans to deliver his inauguration speech which marked the commencement of his four year term. Being the first African American president, the journey that Barack Obama embarked on was difficult but he worked hard to win over voters with his many speeches that promised “Change”; the slogan of his campaign. As president Obama presented his inaugural speech, Americans all over the country witnessed a highly anticipated and great moment in history. In hopes of reassuring his supporters and promising those people with doubts President Obama said, “Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met.” With that said it has been almost two years since we elected this democratic candidate to run our country and within his time of being president we have already took notice to a great amount of progress. Though not all issues have been completely solved president…

    • 1493 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    President Barack Obama addressed many issues in his speech. He began his discourse with a brief history of slaves as well as the struggle that they had to go through. He also mentioned the civil war and its effects, which lead to his main point, racial tension in America. President Obama stated that this is the minority issue compared to health care, education, and good jobs for every citizen. The people have focused all of their attention on the issue of racial tension, like a black president, and not the main problems. He also addressed that The United States needs to be unified as a country and not split because of race. “There is a lot of…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    President Trump delivers a speech to Congress about his vision for America. He informs the public on his policies including job opportunities for Americans. Trump’s speech stimulated a sense of hope for millions of Americans, but he did not thoroughly explain how he will increase more jobs.…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 2008 former senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama spoke out on the issue of racial discrimination. In his speech, A More Perfect Union, he took the minute to let the world know about the racial issues that are being ignored and also shares his past experiences of what he has witnessed from his pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright from one of his given touching on races other than African Americans in which he expressed the distorted view of the country. In his speech he uses rhetorical devices such as allusions, ethos and repetition to persuade and get across to the listeners during his speech. This helps him get his message out to the democratic committee about races having equal rights and also gets voters to vote for him.…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In fall of 2011, President Obama made a set of bills to encourage growth and recovery. It was called American Jobs Act. Even though the bill never got passed, I thought the act would have worked. I’m not saying it was the best, because nothing is perfect. The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: put more people back to work and put more money in the pockets of working Americans – without adding a dime to the deficit. He also said that the bill would not add to the national deficit and would be fully paid for.…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Introduction Rhetoric is a big part of who I am as a person. I try to influence people and I will need to be strong in this area because I plan on being an entrepreneur and will need to influence people. The theory of Rhetoric looks at the persuasion and influence of people, and I am going to examine the rhetoric of two presidents: Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama. These two have addressed some very tough issues and I want to compare the rhetoric used in each of their first inaugural addresses. Aside from myself, I believe that Rhetoric is relevant in many ways.…

    • 3332 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Senator Obama uses his time to bolster his credibility, while staying connected to Rev. Wright. You can hear his first step as Barack uses allusion as a step ladder. The candidate talks about the U.S. constitution to convey his understanding of american values to his audience. Knowing this, he can make a bigger impact when he tackles comparisons, later made in his speech. The subject of comparison being this “union” that failed to address the group of people in the country who were still enslaved.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Obama was elected, he inherited the issue of the economic crisis from the Bush presidency. Unfortunately, he had to solve this issue before moving into some of the promises he had made to the American people during his campaign. Some of the decisions he made just to lighten the blow of the economic crisis were somewhat contradicting to his initial promises. Although Obama knew of the upcoming battle he had to face with the economic crisis, he made grand promises to the public, promises such as when he is elected he will change the world, cure cancer, increase graduation rate, create millions of new jobs, and tackle the issue of global warming. These promises created unrealistic expectations amongst the voters. But these expectations are…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Kyle Bell obama

    • 611 Words
    • 2 Pages

    President Barack Obama delivered his speech “A More Perfect Union” during the 2008 campaign. The speech conveyed many messages about his beliefs concerning racism in America. President Obama has some great things he wants to change in our country including health care, jobs, and the school system. President Obama uses three different appeals during his speech known ethical, emotional, and logical to get his point across to the audience. I think President Obama uses all three appeals in his speech to connect with the audience in some way.…

    • 611 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    More Perfect Union PCR

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Barack Obama’s More Perfect Union speech he used many methods to support his claim of in order to perfect the union, the people must become a unit. Obama used many personal anecdotes that gave the audience an appeal of etho’s and patho’s. When he talked about his family background he showed that he was a credible witness to many races working together as one.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The State of Union Address took place on Jan. 24, 2012 and followed specific traditions. All Congress members both in the Senate and House of Representatives, Supreme Court Justices, Generals, and distinguished guests were at the Address. The Cabinet came before the President and greeted everyone on the isles. When President Obama was ready, he was announced to the Speaker of the House. He also shook and kissed the Congress women and shook hands with Congress men. The most touching moment was when he personally greeted Gabrielle Giffords, a gunshot survivor. This was Obama’s 3rd State of Union speech, and would be recorded as one of the longest speech, 65 minutes. Obama’s speech started and ended with the Iraq War and the assassination of Bin Laden. He begins by…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Barack Obama speaks of the time before the civil war, when the founding fathers made the declaration of independence. The declarations of independence were good, but not perfect, it had been left unfinished. The great question of slavery wasn’t properly answered. But separation isn’t over; Obama wants this generation to keep fighting for equal rights among gender, creed and color. Obamas tells about his past, how he grew up with his white grandparents, in a very poor neighborhood, but still went to one of the best schools in America.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The perfect union is a speech that barack obama gave to the world. When he became president he wanted to talk about how he got to be a president when he was a…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics