Rhetorical Analysis Of Obama's Speech

“Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination. And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you 've gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured - and they overcame them.” (Obama 6) In the speech Obama had presented at the graduation class of 2013 at Morehouse College, he wants them to remember their struggles and be able to overcome them to do what is right. Obama uses a lot of rhetorical appeal such as pathos, such as the fact that he did not have a father figure in his life, yet he reached the top position in the country after years of hard work and support from his single mother, and grandparents. The second most effective rhetorical appeal is ethos,

Obama uses this to talk about the college that was built to help support and make young, black men to succeed in their dreams.

The most effective rhetorical appeal is pathos which is used to persuade all the young men, who still has a heart as pure one 's child, to pursue and never give up on their dreams, which America was built on golden ideas. This can be seen when Obama says, “. .but his education at Morehouse helped to forge the intellect, the discipline, then compassion…”(Obama 3). This is a good rhetorical appeal because everyone knows about Martin Luther King Jr., Obama connects with us emotionally by using the fact that Dr. King enrolled into this college at the age of 15, he used his passion to study harder, and with the help of his college, Martin Luther King Jr. is able to thrive towards his dreams. Another example of pathos is when Obama says, “ I was raised by a heroic single mom, wonderful grandparents…”(Obama 8). Obama uses the fact that he did not grow up with the dream family, the family with two supportive parents. No, he specifically said that he grew up with a “heroic” mother and no father figure in his life. Since almost half of the United States lives with two parents, many people will take on pity