Rhetorical Analysis Of Michelle Obama's Speech

First lady and lawyer, Michelle Obama, in her 2016 DNC speech, recounts her children’s unique life in the spotlight while growing up in the White House. Obama’s purpose is to endorse Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential Election. She adopts a sentimental tone in order to appeal to the audience as a concerned parent. Obama opens her speech by conveying a reminiscing sense of parenthood. She describes, “… I saw their little faces pressed up against the window, and the only thing I could think was, what have we done?” (Obama). She uses imagery to paint the picture of her young children growing up in the white house as an appeal to the nostalgic emotions of the audience. Obama uses this in the beginning of her speech, as well as throughout, in order to support her claim, “… this election and every election is about who will have the power to shape our children for the next four or eight years of their lives.” She uses this powerful combination to convince the audience that no-one other than Hillary Clinton is most suitable to impress on young minds.
She appeals to the audiences’ sense of credibility by acknowledging what Hillary has already done for the children. She illuminates that “Hillary has spent decades doing the relentless, thankless work to actually make a difference in [children’s] lives” (Obama). Obama continues to build on Clinton’s credentials by testifying that she was “advocating for kids with disabilities as a young lawyer, fighting for children’s health care as first lady, and for quality child care in the Senate.” Obama was able to apply not only to the audiences’ sense of credibility, but also continues to build on her earlier sentimental