Rhetorical Analysis Of Obama's Speech

President Barack Obama uses a wide variety of techniques to make a successful victory speech. The main features that allowed this were his choices of language; rhetorical devices; his mode of delivery; paralinguistic & prosodic features; and his structure.
Obama’s speech is full of carefully thought out language choices that all give a specific effect on the audience. For example, many times in the speech Obama repeats the first person pronoun ‘we’ which makes the audience feel included and involved giving them a strong sense of belonging. Obama links this into his use of abstract nouns like ‘hope’, which make a connection with the audience on an emotional level. This is effective because most of the points Obama discusses in his speech
For example, in the first part of the speech extract, Obama uses an anecdote of the 106 year old Ann Nixon Cooper to convey a large section of the American history through her eyes. This is effective because it gives the audience something to simple relate to and it also since she is a woman, it leaves the audience more emotionally touched and interested by her story therefore more emotionally vulnerable to Obama’s words. Obama uses this anecdote to make many different Exophoric references to various past situations. One example is ‘she was there for the buses in Montgomery’ which is referencing to Martin Luther King and the bus boycott. This is effective because a mutual admiration for Martin Luther King will makes the audience more sympathetic to Obama’s cause. At the same time, Obama also combines this with the Antithesis like ‘heartache and hope’. This causes the audience to make a comparison between the two ideas, causing the good point to be emphases. This highlights the good traits of America making the audience feel positive, and therefore positive about his campaign. Also, another example is where Obama uses tripling like ‘New Deal, new jobs, and a new sense…’ to make his speech more memorable. This is effective in this case because it is emphasizing a fresh start with the repetition of the word new, and it makes the audience look forward to the changes
An example of this is How Obama pauses before every ‘yes we can’ resembling the traditional ‘amen’ sermon phrase. This lets the audience know what’s coming next letting them join in with the chant, uniting the audience. Another example of this is in the latter parts of the speech extract where Obama’s voice level changes to emphasize the points. This is because Obama wants them to leave with those points most prominent in their mind and is important in in rallying the audience up with him. This is effective because it makes an appeal to the audience’s heart because the audience think that Obama is passionate about America and really wants to help their Country, making them trust and believe in him more. This was linked in combination with intervals to make a more dynamic and emphatic speech. As well as this at the same time Obama uses a wide range of body language within his speech. An example of this is how Obama turns his head round continuously so he can acknowledge everyone there. This is effective because it engages the audience and makes each person feel like he cares about what they think. This is used together with how Obama uses intonation throughout to create a more memorable fluent rhythmic speech, which shows Obama’s confidence with