Rhetorical Analysis Paper 2: Option 1 As most Americans know, the number of school shootings have increased over recent years. In fact, there has been about forty-two school shootings since 1999 and even more since 1982 (Motherjones.com). Although all of them are great travesties, three events have stuck out in American history more than any other: the Columbine shooting, Virginia Tech shooting, and most recently the Sandy Hook shooting. All three of these events called for a presidential address from the president at the time, Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barrack Obama. While each rhetors ' purpose was to comfort their audience, they also had a different goal within their speeches. Bush 's goal was to give his audience strength in a time
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Both rhetors made conscious decisions on what words they wanted to use to convey their message. For instance, Bush made the goal for his speech clear by repetitively using the phrase "Sources of Strength." Following these phrases he would discuss the different areas he felt could be supportive for the people affected. Since it was his goal to give his audience strength after such a tragic event, it served his purpose. However, by mainly using second person language his speech was very impersonal. Both Bush and Clinton focused on using "you" rather than "we" and therefore it felt as though he was disconnected from the audience and the event itself. Clintons speech shares a commonality with Obama 's in that rather than saying kids or students when referring to the victims they say children, whereas Bush mainly used terms like students and colleagues. The word "children" appears in both Obama and Clintons ' pieces over and over again. In Obama 's speech it may have been necessary as the victims were elementary students. However, the victims of Virginia Tech were of college age. Clintons ' word choice, although it may have been chosen to exemplify the victims ' innocence, seemed a bit out of place. Also, his language overall seemed a bit aggressive for this occasion. Clinton mostly uses active language in his speech for example he sates "You can help us to keep guns out …show more content…
One topic that Obama uses multiple times to console with his audience is faith. He uses several excerpts from the bible to aid his goal in comforting his audience. “Let the little children come to me,” Jesus said, “and do not hinder them -- for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” He uses this quote after speaking each victims name. This aids Obama 's goal in two ways. Firstly it helps his ethos, it shows that he is a man of good faith and therefore trustworthy. It also gives the affected, whether they are religious or not, a kind of comfort that the lost souls are in a better place. Additionally, to aid his goal in getting Americans to make the change to eradicate tragedies like this he uses personal testimony. "Since I’ve been President, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community…The fourth time we’ve hugged survivors. The fourth time we’ve consoled the families of victims." He sates this to emphasize how often these shootings happen and hopes that this statistic will motivate his audience to put a stop to school
Both rhetors made conscious decisions on what words they wanted to use to convey their message. For instance, Bush made the goal for his speech clear by repetitively using the phrase "Sources of Strength." Following these phrases he would discuss the different areas he felt could be supportive for the people affected. Since it was his goal to give his audience strength after such a tragic event, it served his purpose. However, by mainly using second person language his speech was very impersonal. Both Bush and Clinton focused on using "you" rather than "we" and therefore it felt as though he was disconnected from the audience and the event itself. Clintons speech shares a commonality with Obama 's in that rather than saying kids or students when referring to the victims they say children, whereas Bush mainly used terms like students and colleagues. The word "children" appears in both Obama and Clintons ' pieces over and over again. In Obama 's speech it may have been necessary as the victims were elementary students. However, the victims of Virginia Tech were of college age. Clintons ' word choice, although it may have been chosen to exemplify the victims ' innocence, seemed a bit out of place. Also, his language overall seemed a bit aggressive for this occasion. Clinton mostly uses active language in his speech for example he sates "You can help us to keep guns out …show more content…
One topic that Obama uses multiple times to console with his audience is faith. He uses several excerpts from the bible to aid his goal in comforting his audience. “Let the little children come to me,” Jesus said, “and do not hinder them -- for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” He uses this quote after speaking each victims name. This aids Obama 's goal in two ways. Firstly it helps his ethos, it shows that he is a man of good faith and therefore trustworthy. It also gives the affected, whether they are religious or not, a kind of comfort that the lost souls are in a better place. Additionally, to aid his goal in getting Americans to make the change to eradicate tragedies like this he uses personal testimony. "Since I’ve been President, this is the fourth time we have come together to comfort a grieving community…The fourth time we’ve hugged survivors. The fourth time we’ve consoled the families of victims." He sates this to emphasize how often these shootings happen and hopes that this statistic will motivate his audience to put a stop to school