Obama Speech Rhetorical Analysis Essay

One device Obama uses more effectively in his speech is pathos, which appeals to a person’s emotion. During Obama’s speech, “We Can Do Better,” he tries to persuade citizens to unite and agree that the United States needs stricter gun safety laws. Obama starts his speech by discussing each victim of the tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona. He goes into detail about each of their lives and how it ended. By sharing these details, Obama allows the audience to see each victim as a real person by giving them a name, a family, a personality, and a story. Also, each victim’s story ends so abruptly, symbolizing how their lives really did end too quickly, adding to the sorrow of the audience. He, in a way, makes it personal for the listener. Obama makes the listener look
back to a time when they lost someone. He makes them feel the pain and sorrow again. He makes them feel the guilt they felt for not spending enough time with them, or not saying or doing the things they meant to again. By putting them in the victims’ families’ shoes, it makes them feel empathy. It makes the listeners want to protect others from going through the loss that they did. Obama then discusses the heroes, which generates pride. Obama does this to show that there is heroism in everyone. By using pathos, he wants citizens “debating what might be done to prevent such tragedies in the future” (Obama 2). He wants them to take a stand and do something that will help prevent another tragedy.
He wants citizens to feel as if it is their responsibility to contribute to the situation. The rhetoric device, pathos, allows him to stir up empathy and patriotism in his audience. Obama wants citizens to feel for the victims and their families; he wants them to feel patriotism and band together for more gun safety laws. While Obama’s speech is for citizens to want more gun control, Antony’s speech is for the plebeians to rise up against Brutus and the other conspirators. Although the rhetoric device, pathos, was present in his speech, it is less effective than it is in Obama’s. Antony’s speech consists of events that occur in Caesar’s life that show that he is not ambitious. By telling the plebeians this, he is saying that Brutus and the other conspirators did not have the right to kill Caesar. Antony makes the plebeians feel like they are “men that have lost their reason” (III.ii.115). By sharing these contradicting events, Antony provokes doubt and guilt in the plebeians. While it is true that people tend to act on their emotions instead of logic, Antony’s speech has only planted a seed of guilt and doubt in their
minds. However, Obama has fired his audience up on empathy and patriotism. Obama’s speech uses the persuasive device, pathos, much better than Antony in his speech because he works his audience up with victim stories, heroes, and the desire for prevention.