Overview of Barrack Obama's State of the Union Speech

In today’s technologically oriented society, it is very rare to find a speech that truly stands up to the ever-evolving tests of time. Barrack Obama has always been a man who bring up ideas that would alter conversations, having effects far beyond the date spoken. In the face of the man whom single handedly “Asked America to see themselves through the eyes of another” (Ross) it is evident why his progressive ideas are still extremely prominent today.

There is very little uttered by Barack Obama that would not stand the test of time. ‘A Perfect Union’ State of the Union address embodies a time capsule of relevant historical information, as well as possessing a profound style of writing that helps communicate valid information to his target audience. All throughout his “A More Perfect Union” address, Obama used numerous rhetorical tactics to help portray his message by including ethos and pathos to provide his stances, adding background information, using the correct topic and stance for his medium, and genre to aid in the positive reception of the work.

In creating an argument, rhetoric plays the most dominating role in the communication of the points made within the argument. The writer must understand what is meant to be said, why it is to be said, and how it should be delivered. In Obama’s “State of the Union address”, he uses all three rhetorical strategies to his advantage. The most obvious of all three of the rhetorical strategies that Obama ingeniously incorporated into his speech would be ethos. Ethos is the author using the readers’ own values and ethics to seep the point into the conscience of the intended audience. Throughout his speech, Obama mentions future generations, ensuring the controversial conversation he was intending to raise would be digested by the audience.

Obama allows for each person to consider the younger people in his audiences’ own lives. One of the best examples is when he says “… we all want to move into the same direction, into a better future for our children and grandchildren,” (Obama 12). The authors knowledge of his aging audience is clear due to the use of the personal pronoun “our” rather than future, to better infest his audiences’ conscious with the main points of the speech. Through targeting his audience’s age group, Obama taps into the moral compass of his audience, in order to evoke an emotional reaction. Deeper diving into this State of the Union Address the clearer it becomes that ethos is the backbone to the entire speech

Every detail of Obama’s speech is meticulously crafted to create a response from the audience, that forms the opinion he wants them to develop. Tricking into even the damaging comments from his previous reverend, Obama reverts to pathos for his perfectly constructed responses. Reverend Wright made a series of controversial Anti-American statements, re- surfacing around the time of Obama’s run for Presidency. Wright would spare no opinion in his sermons saying once, “God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme,” (Ross). Damning America alone would be enough to leave a bad taste in the mouths of patriots, but he continued adding in another sermon a few weeks later “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” (Ross).

These statements alone are enough to make even the most forgiving people reconsider the implications of the Reverend’s speeches. Reverend Wright made “not only wrong but divisive comments… racially charged when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems,” (Obama 20). These comments threatened the very thread that Obamas Presidency sat on. “He does not speak for me, and he does not speak for the campaign,”(Project). Having his hand forced Obama had no choice but to make sure people knew that the reverend did not speak for him and there was a clear barrier between his religious and political beliefs. He used these incredibly unfortunate and damaging comments to his advantage in the face of pathos. Inside his Address, Obama created a carefully crafted rebuttal that calmed the fire that these comments began. By first taking the argument to the audience saying, “Why not join another church”(Obama 17) he starts “… and I confess that if all I knew about Reverend Wright were those snippets... there is no doubt I would react in much the same way,” (Obama 19).

By acknowledging the arguments, he had believed would be brought up to him, he can address his own reasons for staying with his Reverend. He begins with “The man I met more than twenty years ago helped introduced me to my Christian faith,” (Obama 19). The first part of his response may not resonate with everyone, but it sets the true and genuine tone for the rest of his statement and those who do relate, have already begun to feel a truly emotional connection to his argument. Christian people can relate immensely to the moment when people realize their love for faith, including this personal fact allows for the emotions of people to take over. With the basis for his response finished, he then moves to the evidence that everyone will relate to by continuing with “a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another, to care for the sick and lift up the poor,”(Obama 33)Wording again is a crucial part of the pathos exiting his words and rooting deep into the minds of the crowd listening to this address. Using “our” instead of “my” even though he is really talking about his own personal experience with the reverend allows for his audience to picture themselves with a person who taught the important lessons to life as well. Saving the most relatable for the ending of his response he adds a fact about Reverend Wright that surely made everyone second guess their prior assumptions on the man’s actions.

The complete openness Obama has about his relationship with the Reverend plays directly into the underlying tone of the Address. Transparency in all aspects of his life is the basis for every argument created throughout the State of the Union. Everything that is conversed in the address is extremely open and leaves little to be wondered due to the complete explanations that Obama offers. “A cycle of violence, blight, and neglect that continue to haunt us,” (Obama 30). The employment of the personal pronoun “us” implies the push towards a more inclusive community that acts as a whole body, rather than being segregated based on race, as the African American community still faces hardships today.

Even though in general, Obama explains that he disagrees with the statements that his Reverend has made, the one thing he cannot do is disregard the ultimate reason for the fondness he now has for his controversial Reverend. The mutual respect the two men have is clear in the way Obama describes the world that the Reverend had grown up in. “This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up,” (Obama 31). His reason for including this line is not to give an excuse for what the Reverend had stated, but it is to keep the tone of complete transparency and explain that as Obama states here, “Late fifties, early sixties a time when segregation was still the law of the land,” (Obama 33). Growing up African American in American has been and still is radically different from what white Americans go through in daily life experiences.

The speech in general was received extremely well not only by the people listening in person, but also by the people who were watching from home. Persuasive speech allows for many people to be affected by the information he is saying. This genre makes it possible to not only effectively get the message across, but also impact the audience in a personal way. In layman’s terms, this is one of the most influential equality speeches in the past decade. The information that is relayed through the address allows for the audience to immerse themselves in the hardships of growing up African American, rooting this information in the audience allows for the idea of true equality to manifest in everyone who reads or listens to this State of the Union. With pathos and ethos, tone, and genre in the State of the Union address, Obama plants the seed of equality in everyone’s mind and provides the supplies to manifest it into action.