Rhetorical Analysis Of George W. Bush's Speech

Improved Essays
Rallying A Nation
Families all across America huddled together in fear of the next attack that could shatter their whole world in an instant. This is how the American people felt directly after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the crash landing in Pennsylvania. Americans needed to hear from their leader; they needed reassurance that the country would be able to pick up the pieces, and they needed to know how the nation and the rest of the world would react to such an attack in the coming months. When President George W. Bush addressed the nation and the world, his words needed to carry weight, and he needed to show that The United States was unbowed in the face of terrorism. During his Address to a Joint Session of Congress on September 20, 2001, President Bush invoked feelings of strength and unity, aiding in his quest to calm the fears of Americans; and rally them around his declaration of war. President Bush calms the fears of Americans while persuading his audience to support his call for war, by creating a strong sense of unity throughout his speech. The president begins his speech by declaring that the state of the Union address was already delivered, by the American people. “My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of our Union—and it is strong,” the president declares. By including himself as a citizen of America, he provides a sense that he is trustworthy while showing that America is a unified front. The president uses this sense of trust to calm Americans and assure them that they will be successful in their pursuit of justice. In the fourth paragraph, President Bush reminds his audience that America has faced many attacks in the past, and come out victorious. “Americans have known wars—but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941,” he says referring to Pearl Harbor. In the mentioning of Pearl Harbor, the president reminds the world that America has seen a similar attack on their soil, and when Americans came together for the cause, the perpetrators paid dearly for it. In calming and gaining the trust of the American people, President Bush is better able to persuade citizens to follow through with his call for action. The president continues to stress unity throughout his speech, to garner support for his declaration of war.
…show more content…
The speech contains an overwhelming use of the words we, our, us, and them, creating a sense of solidarity. “Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.” In this statement the president includes his entire audience, creating a sense of responsibility among them, for what comes next. He proclaims that the attack was against all of America, and in many ways the entire world, therefore, the world must stand together against this threat. “This is the world’s fight. This is a civilization’s fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom,” the president explains. In this declaration, the president speaks to countries around the world and lets them know that he expects their support in handling these attacks. He continues on to say, “Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” While the president directed this statement at other countries around the world, it was also meant for Americans at home. If you do not support the president 's declaration of war, you are turning your back on America, and fighting for the terrorists. It is clear that if someone is unwilling to support America in this fight, they will be facing the full strength of America’s vengeance. By reminding Americans of their strength, the president provides direction to the American people and gathers their support for the long and difficult war ahead. The president begins his speech by thanking people who have shown great courage and strength during such a difficult time. “We have seen it in the courage of passengers, who rushed terrorists to save others on the ground—passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer.”

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    September 11, 2001 is a day that forever left a mark on the American people. On this day, millions of Americans became unified in their grief and their desire to make sense of a senseless tragedy. In order to find solace and understanding, many looked towards the news and other sources. These sources provided the words that many could not form themselves, and these words reflected the thoughts and feelings of not only an individual, but the thoughts and feelings of an entire nation. Leonard Pitts Jr. and Dave Barry were two such sources.…

    • 1468 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    To substantiate his pathetic goal, President Roosevelt uses multiple logical methods in his address. He focuses on how the US is strong enough to hold its own borders against the world and how it has a duty to help defend the nation’s foreign…

    • 1624 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Rowdy up a people and inspire thousands. As Bill Clinton explained in his DNC speech, “I want to nominate a man who’s cool on the outside, but who burns for America on the inside.” Based on the president’s speech, Obama appears to be a “down to earth” individual, one that is still fervent for the success of this country. Between the austere issues of “jobs, the economy, taxes and deficits, energy, education, war and peace” there are comforting and securing concluding sentences, and laughs from the president that lay a blanket of relief among the living crowd. This of course appeals to pathos, but as well as ethological properties.…

    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Over 3,000 lives were lost. George W. Bush, President at the time of the attack, was in Florida and relocated many times in search of safe keeping. That evening he returned to the White House and delivered the televised, “9/11 Address to the Nation,” in the Oval Office.…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    U.S. War on Terror Policies: Security vs. Human Rights On September 10th, 2001, thousands of Americans went to sleep in their homes, unaware that it would be their last night alive. The next day, September 11th, over 3,000 Americans lost their lives as a result of the terroristic attacks led by the Islamic extremist group, al-Qaeda. The fact that United States security had been infiltrated came as a shock to the U.S. government and U.S. citizens. President George W. Bush and members of his administration decided it was time to reconsider government policies and organize a rally in national security efforts.…

    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It shows how bad the attack actually was, and it gives the people who weren’t there a feel of what it was like to be there. This is important because people need to know what it was like there. If he would not have used words like that, people may not have thought it was as important as it actually was. He also uses antithesis in his speech. “Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.”…

    • 1856 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    They can't take our strength. They can't take our freedom. And most of all they can't take our heroic humanity. " "You see, Baby, through the worst of what those bad guys did, they brought out the best in our country, and in our world. " "One terrible moment of inhumanity led to uncountable acts of great moments of humanity.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    911 Research Paper

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This attack was a terrible lesson for all people and politicians and it has shown that in the global world all people are in danger and nobody is truly safe. But throughout all the tragedies Americans stayed together, this brought…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Obama's Inaugural Speech

    • 1351 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 2 Works Cited

    In the beginning of the speech President Obama said, “My fellow citizens” (Jan, 2009). An emotional image was drawn in the citizen mind that the president has goals and aims in common. Goals and aims that helping to solve the current problems that most of the citizens had. Also, the president used through his speech we to connect himself the public and he stands as citizen like them. Moreover, President Obama proved how American citizens able to change and he provided an example of himself when he said “why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served in a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath” (2009).…

    • 1351 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 2 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To get the people to rise together as one, he doesn’t just point out the people that were killed in the event, but he got everybody in the country to get involved. The repetition of the word, “Our,” centers the tone of the speech more towards the whole United States instead of just the specific group of people that died from the event (Bush 1). This gets America essentially stronger because it targets America as a whole, making America come together and become more powerful. Another word Bush used a lot was, “For,” he repeated that word, wanting everybody in America to pray for all of the people that were a victim of the tragedy. Having all of America pray for the victims brings America that much closer together resulting in America gaining more strength.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    9/11 Argumentative Essay

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Which is great for society because after this tragic incident, many American citizens were scared and needing reassurance. So Bush speaking confidently about this topic is comforting for the many citizens who were affected by 9/11. “Standing up straight is one of the most important of our top 10 tips to project confidence through body language” (Top 10 Ways). Bush opens his speech by saying “Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress, distinguished guests, fellow citizens, as we gather tonight, our nation is at war, our economy is in recession and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers. Yet the state of our union has never been stronger” (George W. Bush) When telling the viewers and people listening that our country is at war, can scare people in a way, but he ends his sentence with saying that We as a country have never been stronger.…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bush’s speech comforted the devastated nation by telling us acts of heroism and by telling us that we were going to get the men who did it. He wanted to comfort the nation because we were all affected by the tragedy of September 11th. He knew that we were confused about who did this and why anyone would ever do this. He comforted us by saying that the world was with us, supporting us and that we would never forget our nation’s national anthem playing at places such as Buckingham Palace, the streets of Paris and Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. Knowing that the world’s prayers and support was with us reminded us that the entire world felt for us in the face of this tragedy.…

    • 630 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Our enemies have made the mistake that America’s enemies always make. They saw liberty and thought they saw weakness. And now, they see defeat.” George W. Bush stated this about the cowardly September 11th attacks. During that fateful day I was glued to my poorly constructed high school chair, gazing in disbelief what was unfolding on Mr. Cox’s History class television.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Democratic National Committee invited Barack Obama to give the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention. This news came as a surprise as Obama had not yet gained national attention, and was not an obvious choice when compared to other candidates. After his inspiring speech however, Obama became well known throughout America which was good news for John Kerry, as Obama’s speech was intended to persuade voters to support Kerry as president. Obama uses rhetorical devices such as climax in structure, epistrophe, and metonymy to persuade skeptical voters to vote for John Kerry as their next president. Obama makes his speech more convincing by using climax to split his speech into multiple sections; the first section is used…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the following, Barack Obama´s victory speech, which was held in November 2012 after being re-elected as President of the United States of America, will be analysed. Generally, one can say that Obama sends a message of shared values and hopes by using rhetorical devices and structuring his line of arguments in a way that establishes a connection and a feeling of togetherness and involvement in his actions in the audience, for example by the usage of pronouns like “we”. Now, a closer look will be taken at the line of argument.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays