Rhetorical Analysis: The Audacity Of Hope

On July 27, 2004, Barack Obama presented what some might consider his greatest speech, “The Audacity of Hope”, at the Democratic National Convention Keynote Address. All the way through his piece, Obama focuses on connecting himself to Americans. Additionally, Barack Obama was an Illinois senator, and in making this speech, creates an opportunity to raise his reputation. Throughout “The Audacity of Hope”, Barack Obama implements three main devices to raise his political popularity: abstract language, repetition, and structure. Part of “The Audacity of Hope” is Obama’s application of abstract words, which he includes to appeal to each individual in the audience and in turn gain his audience’s approval. Obama states, “John Kerry believes in
Obama states, “John Kerry believes in an America [...]. John Kerry believes in energy independence [...]. John Kerry believes in the Constitutional freedoms [...]. And John Kerry believes that in a dangerous world war must be an option sometimes [...]”. When Obama repeats “John Kerry believes”, he emphasizes that what John Kerry believes in is important, and that it needs to be noticed more than once. While emphasizing John Kerry’s beliefs, he connects these beliefs to positive abstract words, such as independence, freedom, and liberty. He does likewise when he repeats “that we can” to emphasize the power of everyone working together, and repeats “the hope of” to encourage his audience to feel the hope that it takes to help the homeless and poor. All of the single repetition devices work to highlight points that support John Kerry while invoking strong positive emotions such as hope to raise the audience’s approval for
He divides the speech into three main parts; first the introduction as to his background, then his stance on political issues, and finally, a call to action, to side with him. In the start, Obama discusses his history, as mentioned before. Obama related, “Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let’s face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya.” The purpose of this introduction is to humanize and relate himself with the audience, which is especially effective as the audience will more likely vote for a figure that they can see as being a normal American citizen. Second, he brings up his stance on issues, such as poverty, lack of rights, and an opportunity for improvement where the audience can take action. This is also a time when he states who he supports, which included John Kerry and John Edwards. Obama says, “John Kerry calls on us to hope. John Edwards calls on us to hope.” In introducing John Kerry and John Edwards, he connects himself to important political figures by standing in their shadow, taking their beliefs, and impressing them on his own image. In other words, he uses John Kerry and John Edwards’s political stature to appear sharper and more patriotic. In the end, John Kerry’s and John Edwards’s shadows boost his popularity in the eyes of the