Because I’m a geek, I’ve decided to post a (very brief, almost surface level) analysis of the first part of Obama’s speech. A lot of people throughout history have been roused and motivated by speeches – the time of World War II springs to mind: with Hitler but especially Churchill. Many people find these speeches rousing, and yes, it’s partly to do with the atmosphere and the crowd and the significance and staging of such events. But it also heavily relies on language, and many people who are roused by speeches often don’t take the time to look at what it is about them that’s so moving.

I’ve chosen the first section of the speech because, at a glance, it’s by far the best and it really expresses how people can be moved by words. One of the key things that links that links the past to the present to the future is the great oratory skills of the world’s leaders, and I love the fact that America has reclaimed this.

Speech source

‘My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and co-operation he has shown throughout this transition.’

‘My’ – this pronoun shows his dominance, yet this is mellowed out with ‘fellow citizens’, suggesting he is putting himself on the same level as the people – not better than them, but part of them, which implies a sharing of the same views and opinions.

The next sentence is a tripartite, i.e. three components, often widely used in rhetoric as it’s particularly persuasive. Look at where the sentence is broken up at ‘humbled’, ‘grateful’ and ‘mindful’ which achieves this. This sentence also contains a lot of pronouns – ‘I’, ‘us’, ‘you’, ‘our’, in that order. This is particularly subtle as it equates Obama, you and the people of America as all being part of the same thing and as having the same goals. The interchanging ‘I’ (Obama) to ‘us’ (shared) to ‘you’ (individual) to ‘our’ (Obama + shared + individual) is a great way to weave acceptance and interlink the different aspects of society.

‘Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.’

This is where the imagery kicks in – the water imagery is cool and flowing when describing positive eras, and the weather imagery (though still loosely linked to water by the suggestion of rain and storms) linked to less favourable times. This is Obama suggesting that the start of his presidency isn’t going to be easy and he’s in a tough situation. It’s a pretty inventive and non-offensive way of saying ‘Give me a chance, I’ve not inherited this country at a particularly great time for it’. ‘Rising’ and ‘still’, ‘gathering’ and ‘raging’ are all lovely active verbs connoting America’s different stages.

‘At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we, the people, have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.’

‘We, the people’ – again as before, equating himself with the people. ‘Our’ is repeated twice, to the same effect as previously. Again there is a lot of trying to get citizens to look on him favourably, saying that the people are responsible for the continuation of America’s ideals, rather than those in ‘high office’ – this could also be interpreted as a subtle dig at certain previous leaders/parties (!)

‘So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.’

This links past and present/future nicely, which gives Obama the opportunity to then go into the current situation in his next section. The first, short sentence is pretty snappy as a stand alone, yet it works really well with the beginning of the following: ‘So it has been. So it must be’, which is an effective repetition of the sentence structure. This concludes the end of this section in a way that’s typical of Obama – the climax yet obviously completed opening argument gives the audience a pause in which to go crazy, and appreciate the kind of shiveriness from the kind of speaker than can not only speak well, but also has a great speech linguistically.

After this the speech isn’t quite so effective in terms of technique, but then it doesn’t need to be as the opening has done the job of capturing the audience. And to be fair, it is his first presidential speech so we can look forward to a lot more where that came from

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Jenni posted in Random |