Rhetorical Devices In Obama's Inaugural Speech

In the Inaugural Address by Barack Obama he states the fact that “we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution” and that we kept our promise of democracy strong. He then continues to flatter and praise our people as a whole and remind us that “men are created equal”. His use of quoting the Constitution to further promote our greatness for keeping true to “ life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for all these years. Barack Obama makes several more statements of how we have endured many things to get to where we have today. He also continues to tell of how we moved past our struggle of old, racism to move on to a brighter new future. The overall idea he tells us is of how citizens of america as a people are great and have endured much but are headed towards a brighter tomorrow hand in …show more content…
In the beginning of his speech Barack talks of how “what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names” which is targeting our past triumphs in these regards by disregarding any racial or religious differences and instead embracing each other as citizens of america. Barack is specifically concentrating on the sense of patriotism the crowd feels and is evoking that feeling from within them as he speaks and alludes to glorious moments in the nation's past. Towards the middle of Barack Obama's speech he alludes to the civil war to once again revive that feeling of patriotism in the people before him. The pathos shown in Barack’s speech targets the patriotism the people feel and how proud they are in the fact they overcame their religious and racial struggles hoping to evoke an even greater feeling of patriotism as Barack continues to reference these moments of oppression and