How does Obama use rhetorical devices in his speech effectively in order to enagage his audience
How does Obama use rhetorical devices in his speech effectively to engage his audience?
Throughout Obama’s speech he uses many different examples of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, personification, triad, allusion and an inclusive pronoun.
Alliteration is used effectively in Obama’s speech. An example would be “depths of despair to the greatest heights of hope”. The fact that he goes from the worst to the best corrects the listener’s minds and provides an insight into just how good things are going for America in Obama’s eyes. It proves how far they’ve come and gives the listeners hope for even greater things to come in the future. The use of the word ‘despair’ suggests that there was very little hope for America’s future in the past and reinforces how bad things must have been for them. To then use the word ‘hope’ suggests bigger and better things to come, it implies the listener that the best is not here yet and there is a lot more to come and although they have already came so far they are still yet to reach the greatness the country is impending. This makes the audience feel hopeful and trustful in the future for their country.
Personification is also used effectively. An example of this would be “we care so strongly about its future”. In this example Obama is talking about America as a country and referring to it as if it is a real life person. The fact he does this gives likeness and attributes of life to the country, and makes it seem unstoppable in a way as just like a person, America will keep moving forward and develop new ways of doing things and dealing with situations. Personification is much used in visual arts, so Obama using it in this speech works effectively as it immediately makes the audience picture America in their brains and focus on its future rather than its past. The word ‘strongly’ has synonyms like ‘able’, ‘tough’, ‘powerful’ and ‘vigorous’ so it seems the perfect word for Obama to use as it not only makes the people of
Throughout Obama’s speech he uses many different examples of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, personification, triad, allusion and an inclusive pronoun.
Alliteration is used effectively in Obama’s speech. An example would be “depths of despair to the greatest heights of hope”. The fact that he goes from the worst to the best corrects the listener’s minds and provides an insight into just how good things are going for America in Obama’s eyes. It proves how far they’ve come and gives the listeners hope for even greater things to come in the future. The use of the word ‘despair’ suggests that there was very little hope for America’s future in the past and reinforces how bad things must have been for them. To then use the word ‘hope’ suggests bigger and better things to come, it implies the listener that the best is not here yet and there is a lot more to come and although they have already came so far they are still yet to reach the greatness the country is impending. This makes the audience feel hopeful and trustful in the future for their country.
Personification is also used effectively. An example of this would be “we care so strongly about its future”. In this example Obama is talking about America as a country and referring to it as if it is a real life person. The fact he does this gives likeness and attributes of life to the country, and makes it seem unstoppable in a way as just like a person, America will keep moving forward and develop new ways of doing things and dealing with situations. Personification is much used in visual arts, so Obama using it in this speech works effectively as it immediately makes the audience picture America in their brains and focus on its future rather than its past. The word ‘strongly’ has synonyms like ‘able’, ‘tough’, ‘powerful’ and ‘vigorous’ so it seems the perfect word for Obama to use as it not only makes the people of