<
>
Download

Interpretation
Politik

Leibnizgymnasium Düsseldorf

2012, 2

Lisa V. ©
3.10

0.15 Mb
sternsternsternstern_0.75stern_0.3
ID# 25332







Barack Obama – Speech in Parma Ohio


Barack Obama's speech at a Campaign Rally in Parma - Ohio, delivered on 5th July 2012, deals with the current situation in America, how and why the conditions changed and how the US-American citizens can solve this problem with Obama's help in the position of the President of the United States.

From his point of view the basic idea of the American Dream is not longer reachable for the majority of the population, it became harder to achieve it, because of the financial crisis and the resulting affects of it. The middle class had tried to work harder, pay more for essential things like gas, health care and groceries but gets less and less back.

The current situation shows in his opinion a materialistic way of the American Dream, he emphasizes that it is not about measuring your life and everything your reached on the money you earn, he wants to bring back the middle class into America


 The Remarks by Barack Obama held on 5th July at a Campaign Rally in Parma, Ohio are going to be analysed consideting the rhetorical devices Obama uses to convince his audience of voting for him, in the following.

Throughout the whole speech the is no part where Obama does not use the device of anaphora to catch his audience's attention and to point out important circumstances. An example for this is shown directly in the first part, in line 2: „And this will be( .), this will be my last campaign.“

This device has a enormous affect towards the audience, because it becomes clear which parts went wrong during the last time.

For his better appearance Obama tries to make fun of himself in the following part. Already in the first line he makes use of irony in his statement, which can be seen when he states that the audience may not have noticed, that they're in the middle of the new campaign season (ef. l. 1).

He also talks about his wife Michelle who was first making fun of him and his idea to candidate, to demonstrate how made up out of thin air and ridicilious his thoughts were.

Also Obama makes himself more credible by indirectly telling that he is what the Americans believe in (ef. l. 40-41) and by enumerating the time he spent trying to help the population (ef. l. 54).

To create a relation with and a closeness to the audience, the speaker exposes a lot of his own family life and puts himself in the position of a normal middle class citizen. He starts the introduction of his speech with a ''from rags to riches'' story, namely his own, which is as most of the watchers know the basic idea of the American Dream.

Another aspect is the use of stylistic devices which appeal to the imagery of the audience. Although the given excerpt does not include many metaphors, there is one which sums up the main statement the best, it deals with the ''slipping away'' (l. 31) of the American Dream from the population and especially from the middle class.

This sentence creates an image in the audience mind of something that is not holdable or even reachable.

A last but not leat detail can be found in line 39. It is not clear whether it is an appeal or an apostrophy to the three politicians of the DemocraticParty of Ohio Obama mentions, but it shows the watchers that Obama is not the only one who is fighting, there are still people in their own state who are fighting with him for the same reason.

 


| | | | |
Tausche dein Hausarbeiten