Rhetorical Analysis Obama Speech

Tuesday morning, September 11 of 2001, referred to as a day to remember, the twin towers were attacked by terrorists in a hijacked plane. Thousands of lives were lost and it was a day that brought great sorrow to America. George W. Bush, the president at that time, addressed his speech to America as a nation, giving them hope that the events that took place earlier that day would not shake them but that they would come back stronger. In this essay I will evaluate Bush’s formal 9/11 Address to the Nation and discuss the speaker’s appeals to pathos, logos and ethos to convey his message that America can stand tall as one.

Former President George W. Bush’s speech, “Bullhorn”, was given through a megaphone on top the rumble of 220 floors of a horrific event. On the day of September 11, 2001, an Islamic group, called Al-Qaeda, hijacked four American passenger airliners to carry out suicide attacks against targets across the United States. The potential targets included: the twin towers, the Pentagon and the White House. Three of the four hijacked airliners accomplished their goal as the lives of 3,000 innocent civilians were taken. A cloud of grief and mourn covered the country as they experience the worst tragedy since 1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Soon after the attack on September 14th, a ray of hope appeared as President Bush took the stage. Throughout his speech, three rhetorical devices were shown are: ethos, logos, and pathos. Bush used these three devices to connect with the audiences’ emotions, appeal to the audiences’ ethics, and appeal to the logical side of the audience additionally, all while creating a sufficient speech to the comfort the country.

One of the most catastrophic events America has faced were the September eleventh terrorist attacks. Our nation faced one of the most damaging attacks in our history and it was up to our president, George W. Bush, to address the entire nation and assure everyone that America still remains a strong and functioning country. Our President George Bush was called upon to address the nation, a nation that was currently suffering from loss, fear, and despair. His goal was to persuade Americans to take comfort in the effort being put forth in resolving the aftermath of the attacks and the fear they caused. Recognizing his audience as being innocent victims of an unknown evil, President Bush ultimately had to present a speech that mastered various techniques

On September 11, 2001, George W. Bush delivered his 9/11 Address to the Nation at 8:30 PM to all Americans. This speech, broadcasted throughout the nation from within the Oval Office just hours after the terrorist hijacking and the crash on the Twin Towers, reassured American citizens during a time of devastation and need of proper leadership. (Eidenmuller). Through rhetoric intended to convey strength and the actions America had already taken to combat this tragedy, Bush instilled hope in the American people and provided them with a sense of unification.

The events that took place in America on September 11, 2001 will have a lasting wound on this country forever. President George W. Bush’s speech, “A Great People Has Been Moved to Defend a Great Nation”, gave America something to have hope in. Bush was a republican president and was the 43rd of the United States and was a very passionate man. Although Bush had to make some tough decisions that very day, he was a president that made a lasting impact on America. Throughout Bush’s speech, he effectively covered pathos, ethos, and logos.

On September 11, 2001, George W. Bush gave a speech to the American citizens following the horrible and tragic terrorist attacks that had taken place. Bush’s purpose is to create unity among the nation and to build his presidential credibility. United States President, George W. Bush, in his speech, 9/11 Address to the Nation, emphasizes how everyone should move forward and remain strong after the tragic events. Bush appeals to the audience using pathos, logos, and ethos while adopting a grieving, yet hopeful tone in order to tranquilize the people of America.

The first thing Obama does in his speech is mention the events of 9/11. He recalls it as a “the worst attack on the American people in our history.” He continues giving his audience a idea of a horrible event full of death. He is using a form of rhetoric known as pathos. He does this to pull on people’s emotions getting their attention and reminding them of the past. By doing this Obama unites peoples thoughts making them think the same thing and re-ignite the American people’s urge for revenge on Al Qaeda.

Bush then used the rhetorical device antithesis. He started off talking about the American way of life and that day itself. The sentence started with the American citizens, and talked about their freedom and their way of life, the sentence then ended with “a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts” (Bush 1). This quote probably relates to the morning of the attack, when Americans were probably going about their normal day in New York, then all of a sudden the attack happened and change people’s lives forever. Bush then explained that the victims “were in airplanes or in their offices--secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers. Moms and dads. Friends and neighbors” (Bush 1). They were friends, family members, and they were mostly all Americans and they did not deserve this. Bush addressed the emotions of every American who were affected due to the events of the 9/11 attacks in these four sentences. Bush addressing this was pretty important because, these mixed feelings were on everyone’s minds.

September 11, 2001 was a tragic part of  history for the United States of America. On September 11,  four planes crashed down by hijackers at the Pentagon, the Twin Towers, and a Pennsylvania field. The Pentagon and World Trade Center were the primary buildings where the Al Qaeda wanted to attack. The White House was another target, however they never made it. Later that night, President George W. Bush gave a speech about 9/11 in the Oval Office. George W. Bush inspired America of their safety and security of his confident tone, religious beliefs,word choice.

In the beginning of the speech he uses pathos, or emotion, which is a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response. George W Bush says, “Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge -- ­­huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat” (1). He tries to catch his audience by talking about all the bad things, and lives ended, but then states, “But they have failed. Our country is strong” (1).

On September 11th 2001, the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out terrorist attacks against the United States. Two planes were flown into the World Trade Center twin towers. The third hit the Pentagon outside Washington, and the final plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed as a result, and this tragic event defined the presidency of George W. Bush (History.com Staff). Shortly after the attacks, President Bush delivered a powerful speech that helped unify the American people, defy the terrorists, and call the citizens to action. In his 9/11 speech, President Bush successfully uses rhetorical devices to address the terrorism, unite people, and give hope to his audience.

When the twin towers were destroyed in New York City by the terrorist group led by Osama Bin Laden, a Country filled with panic, sadness, and anger was left behind. Thousands of innocent civilians were killed, and the families of the fallen suffered greatly. People demanded answers, and wanted justice. People also felt unsafe, and were unaware if it was reasonable to expect another attack. President George Walker Bush prepares a speech for congress to discuss the events that took place, and the plans that will take place because of these events. The objectives of the speech Bush was trying to accomplish were informing the nation what had happed on September 11th, he then noted that it was not Muslins to be blamed for the attack, the challenges that lie ahead, and our plan for the “War on Terror.” The President uses the canons of rhetoric to execute a speech that met his audience’s needs.

These two extracts provide two different pictures. Obama begins his speech by portraying and emphasizing all the good things about the U.S. military and how patriotic they are, not just to the intervention in Libya, but as well as all that they have done for the country. And when it comes to talk about Gaddafi, the Extract 1 is the poster card presented by Obama. For those who did not know about Gaddafi until were introduced in a terrifying way.

Former President, Barack Obama in his Inaugural address speech emphasizes on how America needs to come together and fix up the mayhem that has happened over the past few years. Obama’s purpose is to use his voice to allow the people of this nation that today is the day for a change. He adopts a passionate tone in order to indicate that he takes his position seriously and will fight for what he loves. Throughout Obama’s speech, he touches on important aspects of this nation and he does that by referring to an allusion to help build credibility, anaphora to emphasize his emotions, and alliteration to give the speech a smooth flowy rhythm.

On top of the persistent promotion of equality and togetherness, Obama also begins to propose endless possibilities and hope through the audience all leading back to unity. He then connects “ending of war” to the beginning of economic recovery. This brings hope and the use of parallelism, “ we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together". He begins again, this time using a parallelism that is used throughout the rest of the