Barack Obama „yes we can“ speech analysis

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clearly points out that all these people are getting together to change their country by using parallelism, when he repeats the same sentence structure 'what's happening' (II. 18) and connects it with the action of a change. After mentioning his main aim, Obama continues on with a new aspect: the ways that this change is going to happen. In this segment he mostly uses pathos and an emotional tone in order to appeal to the emotions of the audience and make them sympathize with him. An example for his usage of emotive language is his pessimistic tone while mentioning America's current situation as "dividing " and "distracting" (cf. 1.20), and him using a optimistic tone while talking about the future of the country (cf. II.23). Moreover, by using multiple metaphors he creates a bad image of the recent U.S on the audience's minds and indicates there should be a permanent change. Describing the school corridors as "corridor of shame" (1. 30), he underlines that even in the education system there have been issues like systematic racism going on, that needs to be solved. By defining the fossil fuel sector as "tyranny of oil" (1. 33), he points out not only the schools and education is corrupted but also the sources that the American people mostly use are corrupted too and they should get changed with renewable ones. Thus making use of anaphora by repeating "we will" and "we can" on beginning of sentences (cf II. 35 and cf.I. 28-33), Obama emphasizes that they will solve all of these problems with the support of his audience and gives concrete solutions of the problems that he mentioned. So, by employing anaphoras and metaphors he assures his audience that the change is going to happen in a well planned way and persuades them to believe in his ideals and future plans. Mentioning the slogan of his election campaign, which is "Yes we can", repeatedly (cf. 1. 52) , he makes this catchy praise more memorable for the audience and puts emphasis on the ability of him and his supporters to make a change. In addition to that he makes use of multiple allusions to make his audience believe that if people in these times were successful to make a change in the system of the US, they are also able to accomplish a change now. He alludes to declaration of independence by explaining that his slogan of his campaign was also a creed written into the declaration of independence documents (cf. II.53). Since the publication of this document is one of most important events in American history, he underlines the importance of his own selection with this allusion. The second allusion appears, when Obama reminds his audience the fight of the slaves and abolitionists for the abholishment of slavery in the civil war (cf. Il 55). Barack Obama was an African-American man and if he could get selected as the president, he would have been the first black president of US. Therefore by drawing parallels with his fight and the fight of enslaved black people, he makes his campaign more relevant in the eyes of all of his supporters but especially the African-American ones, because it evokes in them the sense that they are also recognized and acknowledged. During this allusion he also uses an antithesis by telling that the slaves" brazed a trail toward freedom through darkest of nights." (II. 55). Contrasting the blaze of freedom with the dark night of oppression, Obama shows the audience that change is the only way to get rid of the darkness and finally find the light and true happiness. In another allusion of the speaker, he demonstrates the hopes of immigrants to survive and make changes against the unforgiving wilderness of the pioneers during the westward expansion (cf. 1157). In his last allusion he reminds the listeners the time that the women gain the right to vote(cf. 1.59). Even though he points out two different events and two different group of people, the effect of these allusions on the audience is same: If they could do it, if they made a change, Obama and his supporters are also able to do it and make a change. As he then reaches the climax of his speech, he describes this change not as a countrywide one but as a worldwide one, when he says they can heal not only this nation but they can also repair this world (cf. II.60) .With this climax he evokes a patriotic feeling in his audience and completely makes them believe that he is able to do what he says. To conclude, presidential candidate Barack Obama persuades his listeners to vote for him in order to make all the necessary changes that he mentioned real with making use of a variety of skillfully chosen stylistic devices to support his argumentative outline and convince his audience of his aim.