Beginning on January 8, 1790, the State of the Union Address has performed as one of the most informative and effective ways for the President of the United States to address members of congress with future plans, past reflections, and current achievements.The State of the Union address for 2018 was given on January 30 by President Donald J Trump. In every speech given a strong use of some sort of rhetorical appeal is used, whether it be ethos, pathos, logos, or multiple. Focusing on the starting portion of President Trump's Union Address he begins to describe the achievements of his administration over the year that he has been in office. When defining these successes he also takes the time to acknowledge several people who have showed heroism …show more content…
Pathos can be defined as the use of emotion to persuade, therefore by illustrating these acts of bravery by American Citizens during times of crisis he is intriguing his audience and helping them to perhaps make emotional connections to what he is going to say. By beginning with Ethos he is preparing whom he is addressing to have a larger dedication and understanding for what he will say during the rest of his address. An example of this is when President Trump states, "In the aftermath of that terrible shooting, we came together, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as representatives of the people. But it is not enough to come together only in times of tragedy. Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people. This is really the key. These are the people we were elected to serve." This quote proves how Trump outlines heroics based off of tragedy to help people more willing to listen to what he says about both political parties coming together in union. As Trump speech continues he maintains a use of pathos but also begins to move into the appeal of
Another instance of pathos involves the father persona that Obama exhibits in his speech. He connects with the audience on an emotional level as he talks about parenthood and all of the duties that parents have in caring for their children. He also talks about the duty that parents have to protect and care for their children. This is intending to draw emotion from the parents in the audience as they imagine their own child. Obama then states that we cannot keep them safe without the help of others.
President Trump established ethos by using first and second point of view. This helps him achieve his purpose of convincing to the nation that him being the president is what is best for the country. He uses personal pronouns "you", "our", "we", and "I" to appeal to the listener, so that they feel included in fight to join both sides of congress to help better America. He states, “Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people...” (Trump).
Elected as the first African-American president- a figure that is expected to embody morality and knowledge as a political representative of the nations’ people; Barack Obama powerfully governed for eight years and was subsequently elected for a second term. America’s Democratic system of representation reveals the great power that is vested in the general public, stressing that whilst a President possesses great authority himself; he is expected to demonstrate attentiveness towards the public outlook. Obama states that the progress of mankind is something to be appreciated and commended. Obama voices his insight in this November issue of WIRED magazine - where avid readers of science and technology are regulars. WIRED had requested Obama to guest-edit an editorial, in which Obama effectively utilizes the rhetorical strategies of repetition, allusion, and pathos to illustrate that now is the greatest time to be alive.
One of the best ways a speaker can use to communicate his or her message is by using rhetorical appeals, President Roosevelt used pathos to be successful with his purpose. He used pathos because he wanted to make his audience get emotional to the event that had just happened, therefore his audience would listen carefully to understand the message that President Roosevelt was about to communicate. For example, president Roosevelt said, “The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. Very many American lives have been lost”. Based on this evidence, President Roosevelt intentions on including this not only had the purpose of informing his audience about the pass event, the attack by
President George W. Bush gave a speech titled “9/11 Address to the Nation,” where he reassures the nation of our country’s strength and even calls it the “brightest beacon for freedom.” This event was a suicide bombing of the World Trade Center where approximately 3,000 people were killed and nearly 6,000 more were injured. Although it was one of the worst attacks in American history, it unified the nation in more ways than one. This speech was made even more important after a tragedy like 9/11 because the nation had been frightened by these acts of terror and was in need of the inspiration of our most powerful leader: the commander-in-chief. Throughout this speech, Bush uses rhetorical devices such as pathos, analogy, epithet, and asyndeton
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s State of the Union Address in the year 1942 opened with a powerful start. He remained good in posture, strong verbal skills, gestures and strong eye contact with his audience which goes to show confidence and being in control of your speech (Stephen D. Boyd, 2017). He addressed the Americans, the citizens of the United States before he mentioned anything. He went to show that the President, himself found faith in their spirits and how he was merely proud of his citizens. He presented a powerful statement to his audience by acknowledging them and according to Matt Eventoff, “a statement or phrase can catch the audience’s attention by keeping them guessing as to what you’re about to say next.
Bush made his speech on September 11, 2001 he spoke outright to America. He spoke to citizens, victims, families that have lost their loved ones and military families that have their life on the line. Bush gave his country strength when there was a dire need for it. His speech was filled with rhetorical devices that brought peace to the chaos that riddled the country. Bush’s use of anaphora, homily and antithesis gave faith, wisdom and harmony to the country.
Considering the state that the country was in after the attacks, the presentation of this speech may have seemed an almost necessary thing to do for the president. However, the use of rhetoric goes above and beyond the basic presidential speech, it enables a connection with the American people on a personal level. Overall, we will never forget the events of that day, but we will especially remember how we pulled together as a nation, and how President Bush’s speech aided that feeling of
Bush established more ethos and pathos in the next few sentences by saying that “these acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat” (CNN). His statement described the sadness that Americans felt that day, but Bush then made a smart move in his speech; He changed the direction of the speech from negative to positive. This same paragraph ended with the statements that the American “country is strong.” This would shape Bush’s foreign policy for the rest of his term as president.
Ethos is the credibility of someone and pathos is the use of emotions to persuade. Ethos and pathos are important when reading, writing, or speaking . Both are important in different ways. Ethos shows the credibility of person making someone more likely to believe in their claims. While pathos will use certain emotions that will make the audience more susceptible to being persuaded.
It was important that Bush use rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos, and logos in his address to the nation. He also needed to use the hope and history on which America was built on to unite the
On July 27th 2004, Barack Obama delivered a speech that motivated America to make a change. He spoke with such passion and emotion to the crowd that he had them strung on every word that came out of his mouth. “The Audacity of Hope” is one of the speeches that is going to go down in history for years to come. Obama used many rhetorical devices such as repetition, questions, emotive language, and the use of pronouns that helped get his point across, while at the same time compelling the audience. He used ethos to help his audience to get a feel for who he was as a person, he used logos to help back up what he is saying with facts, and he used pathos to reach his viewers emotions.
In Ronald Reagan’s “The Challenger” speech, he uses the rhetorical device pathos, or the appeal to emotion, in order to connect the pain that his family, the entire nation, and the families of those affected by the disaster were feeling. As WordPress.com said, “Reagan uses his delivery, use of dictation, and appeals to pathos to help attempt a nation to recover, eulogize seven men and women, and give a new home to the American people”. About his family and the entire nation, “Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the Challenger… We know we share this pain with all of the people of our county.” (Reagan 1), and about the families of those in the disaster, “For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact
Discourse analysis on Barack Obama’s 2013 Inauguration Speech Han Song Jin 1001438985 Abstract: This mini project paper analyses the approaches used by the President Barack Obama in his inauguration speech which he delivered on 21ST January 2013. The study focus solely on the approaches used by Barack Obama to deliver his ideology as the President of the United States of America to get the public to be acquainted with his administration agenda moving forward to strengthen the democrats in the inauguration speech rhetorically. The discourse analysis was carried out based on the video recording of the inauguration speech delivered by President Barack Obama in 2013 which was then uploaded in YouTube and the findings of this research will be presented in textual analysis along with review of related studies.
Barack Obama’s win for President in 2009 was a historical moment for the United States. His inaugural speech was much anticipated, because this was going to set the tone for his presidency. His speech told the American people that improving the economy is one of his priorities, but there were also other areas he would like to improve like healthcare and the education system. This was a speech that was meant to persuade the American public to take action for them to rise as a nation again, and for them to put their trust into him. His message addressed a couple of specific points like his gratefulness to the American people, the different crises America is facing, how America will overcome these crises, replying to his cynics, addressing the world, and then he reminded America again to be brave like they’ve always been to overcome the hard times (5 Speechwriting Lessons from Obama's Inaugural Speech, (n.d.).