Sandy Hook Shooting Statement Analysis
Alexis Springer
Mr. Bless
AP Language and Composition
23 September 2014
Statement on the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings Analysis President Obama’s comments are expected, necessary, and typical of a posttraumatic event happening somewhere in the United States. People of America need the reassurance that everything is going to be all right and we look to our president for that reassurance. Being a president, Obama has to deliver great speeches, and the Statement on the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings, being one of them. He uses copious rhetorical devices, rhetorical appeals, and the meaning behind his speech was heart warming to the community and the nation. In order to compose a great speech, as Obama has, there must be rhetorical devices. The devices that truly formed his discourse where metonymy, literary motif, repetition, and parallel structure. Metonymy was conveyed when he would use diction where he would not say the word ‘shooting’, he would say “…of these tragedies…” or “…this heinous crime...” (Obama). The reason behind this was because he did not want to mention the instrument used in the catastrophe, which was shooting with semi-automatic rifles; but he just wanted to touch the surface in the lightest way possible. Another rhetorical device that Obama had applied was parallel structure. This was used when Obama listed other places that insane mass shootings had occurred. “…it’s an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago…” (Obama). Parallel structure takes effect when the repetition of the same pattern of words or phrases shows that two or more ideas have the same level of importance; and all of the different shootings do have the same level of importance plus he states them all in a similar way. Literary motif enhances Obama’s statement about the Sandy Hook tragedy because of the symbolic meaning conveyed, “…these
Mr. Bless
AP Language and Composition
23 September 2014
Statement on the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings Analysis President Obama’s comments are expected, necessary, and typical of a posttraumatic event happening somewhere in the United States. People of America need the reassurance that everything is going to be all right and we look to our president for that reassurance. Being a president, Obama has to deliver great speeches, and the Statement on the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shootings, being one of them. He uses copious rhetorical devices, rhetorical appeals, and the meaning behind his speech was heart warming to the community and the nation. In order to compose a great speech, as Obama has, there must be rhetorical devices. The devices that truly formed his discourse where metonymy, literary motif, repetition, and parallel structure. Metonymy was conveyed when he would use diction where he would not say the word ‘shooting’, he would say “…of these tragedies…” or “…this heinous crime...” (Obama). The reason behind this was because he did not want to mention the instrument used in the catastrophe, which was shooting with semi-automatic rifles; but he just wanted to touch the surface in the lightest way possible. Another rhetorical device that Obama had applied was parallel structure. This was used when Obama listed other places that insane mass shootings had occurred. “…it’s an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago…” (Obama). Parallel structure takes effect when the repetition of the same pattern of words or phrases shows that two or more ideas have the same level of importance; and all of the different shootings do have the same level of importance plus he states them all in a similar way. Literary motif enhances Obama’s statement about the Sandy Hook tragedy because of the symbolic meaning conveyed, “…these