Diseases like body lice and trenches foot
Structure of speech
Way he delivers the speech and its impact
In my essay I will be analysing the speech, “Yes we can” by Barrack Obama. The speech is to persuade the people of America that their quality of life can be improved. Barrack Obama portrays this by using various persuasive techniques to interest his audience and his famous quote, “Yes we can”
Obama uses illusion in his speech by referring to “Anne Nixon Cooper who is a hundred and six years old” to show how extraordinary this woman was. At this point the audience responds in a shocking way as they are all moved by his words. The effect the illusion has on the audience is that it attracts their attention towards the speech.
Throughout the speech Obama refers to famous people such as Lincoln who is a role model for him. Lincoln had a vision that all “Americans might share the freedom…” to live life as they wished and hoped that “…children might climb higher than we should.” The use of this is to take the audience back into the historical background and make them realise that there were many people who fought for the black and white rights.
Obama uses Anne to repaint history by talking about her life portrayed in his rule of three. He tells the audience that in Anne’s time there were “no cars on the road and or planes in the sky… couldn’t vote for two reasons…” The effect created of the rule of three is to show how old she was.
He also uses a rule of three as he talks about Anne struggling as he states, “heartache and the hope, (pause) the struggle and the progress, (pause) the times we were told we can’t…” The effect of this upon the reader is to emphasise the historical struggle and how much Anne went through. Obama pauses at points and raises his voice between his words to reflect his point and make it memorable for the audience.
Throughout the speech Obama uses