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Rhetorical Devices In Obama's Inaugural Address

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On January 21, 2013 President Barack Obama takes the stage to give his second and his last Inaugural Address to the people of the United States of America at the U.S Capitol Building. Throughout his entire speech President Obama uses Rhetorical devices to take his claim to the next level, to make his claim superior and most importantly to make his claim the one the people of the United States of America choose to stand behind. The Inaugural Address is something the voting citizens look forward to every year, this event symbolizes the uprising of a new era. A new leader taking the stand in front of our mighty nation.

President Obama uses Rhetorical devices all throughout his speech. The first of these that he presents is Ethos. Ethos helps describe the credibility of the writer, and if you should or should not believe them. A couple examples of Ethos as expressed in the speech are as follows,
Firstly the president directly speaking of the Constitution is Ethos. It makes him look much more credible due to the credibility of the document itself. It makes President Obama overall look a lot …show more content…

I love it due to the raw imagery portrayed by the speaker. You can clearly see a little girl dressed in rags but slowly over time with hard work and persistence going from “rags to riches”. As he continues his speech he brushes upon multiple other groups of people; the parents of disabled children, of victims of job loss, illness and violent storms, also of LGBT people. The President attempts to brush on each of these diverse groups of people so that everyone in the audience; everyone listening can relate in some way, shape, or form. He comments on each of these groups so that the Ethos he is attempting to use will give some type of emotional connection to himself. He wants each and every person observing or listening to the speech to feel connected in a personal way to himself, to feel like they can trust and rely on

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