Examples Of Ethos In Yes We Can

Pathos is used quite often throughout Obama's ‘Yes We Can’ speech. He uses examples of certain changes that had been made in the eight years that he was in office, to show how far we have come as a nation. Anaphora is used throughout this small portion of his speech. He keeps repeating “If,” which makes the things he is saying sound unachievable in eight short years. He leads the portion of the speech with, “If I had told you eight years ago…” almost making it seem impossible. After stating a few of the milestones that our nation has reached, he states, “But that’s what we did.” This creates a feeling of accomplishment; makes us feel like we got somewhere. He doesn’t stop at just that feeling though, he restates how we did it, but changes the