The Rhetorical Analysis Of Obama's Farewell Address

Obama’s Farewell Address, was his final speech as President. Obama’s purpose of his Farewell Address was a way for him to say goodbye and to thank the American citizens but to also remind the citizens about all the improvements he made and how it should be continued. In order, to get his message across to the American citizens he used two of Aristotle’s modes of persuasion such as, pathos and logos. Obama used the genre pathos to invoke emotions from the audience in order for them to feel apart of the speech and he used logos to remind the citizens of his improvements and persuade them to continue his changes without his Presidency.
According to Aristotle, pathos means to persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions. People who use …show more content…
According to Aristotle, logos is an appeal to logic, and is a way of persuading an audience by reason. Obama goes back and states facts, statistics and historical events where he had been successful as president. Obama does this to persuade the audience to continue his successes and to fight equal rights. He does this by listing several statistics on inequality, for example, “ Health care costs are rising at the slowest rate in 50 years. And I’ve said, and I mean it, anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our health care system, that covers as many people at less cost, I will publicly support it.” By listing all of these facts and statistics about his presidency was proving to everyone that what he accomplished was successful. Having the audience reminded of these accomplishments persuades them to keep these trends going and create keep-creating …show more content…
Using both of these modes of persuasion from Aristotle’s rhetoric, helped Obama get his message across to the people in an appropriate manner. He used pathos, to get emotion out from the American citizens but also to persuade them how everyone should never stop dreaming and should never give up no matter how much you struggle. This brings forth emotions and empathy. Which is the main goal when using pathos. By using logos he was reminding the American citizens of what he did as a President and how successful he has been. By stating these statistics he was proving to the people that there is no reason these should be discontinued just because he is not president anymore. Obama was imploring that the citizens keep his trends and to continue his legacy. Obama’s Farewell Address speech, overall message was to say goodbye and to thank the citizens but to also have the citizens to continue his successes. With the help and use of pathos and logos Obama’s message was successfully