Barack Obama Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term as president of the United States on November the 7th 2012, by beating Mitt Romney despite dissatisfaction with the way he handled the economy. Before this particular outcome of the election, Obama made some remarks at a Campaign Event in Denver, Colorado. These remarks were among many other initiatives established by Obama to persuade the American people to vote for him. In order to reach this goal, he uses modes of appeal and rhetorical features, which I will clarify and shed light over in my rhetorical analysis of his speech by providing examples and explanations.

Obama begins his speech with Pathos to engage his audience and catch their attention, which he does with humour, when he tells
We can make you well. There’s a cure (p2).” The appeal to pathos is evident, because he makes the audience laugh at the expense of Romney. By appealing to this feeling, he achieves to discredit Romney and his
This is evident in his speech when he tells about how tough the Americans are: “We always bounce back, because we pull together, because we look after one another. We don’t turn back. We go forward. We don’t leave anybody behind – we pull them up with us (p5).” The appeal to pathos is clear in this quote, because he inspires and awakes a strong patriotic and solidary feeling in you, just like the above-mentioned polyptoton. By appealing to this sentiment, Obama succeeds in seducing and persuading the recipients of his speech to agree with him. The linguistic feature antithesis and the topological feature is also evident in this quote, because he provides different contrasts by using sentences with opposite meaning (turn back – go forward. We don’t leave anybody behind – we pull them up with us). Obama thereby achieves to make the emotions stronger, and this helps him to convey his message by clarifying his