Use Of Allusions In President Richard Nixon's 'Oval Office'

Improved Essays
n 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned from his second term in the Oval Office. President Nixon was involved in a scandal at the Watergate complex in Washington D.C. The Republican president Nixon was believed to have ordered the burglars to go to the Democratic National committee for a crime of wire tapping and stealing documents. President Nixon tries to console, defending his honor, and remind the public all that has been accomplished.

Richard Nixon tries to console the public by using emotional appeal and figurative language. In paragraph 7, Nixon consoles the nation by stating,” As we look to our future, the first essential is to begin healing the wounds of this nation, to…”. Nixon tries to console everyone by giving them a switch of power without a hitch and giving the public a goal to reach towards to help them move on. Nixon uses several allusions to help console the public. In paragraph 2 and 3, Nixon uses allusions to get allusions to get people’s minds off of the grief of losing a president. He alluded to affairs overseas and issues at home to remind them not to be sad about this moment because there are lots of other things to worry about.
…show more content…
“I have never been a quitter.” Is a claim of fact that he uses to defend his name from the harsh scrutiny from the Democrats. In paragraph 28, Nixon uses repetition to defend his title as president. His reminder of his term in office help to recap the speech and to defend his rightful title. Nixon uses paragraph 31 to connect to the public and humanize

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Jaquelyn Mendoza Speech Analysis Paper “Checkers” Richard M. Nixon Using the five canons of rhetoric, I will analyze Richard M. Nixon’s “Checkers” historical speech. First, I will describe the canon of invention and further analyze Nixon’s argument. Next, I will tell you how he structured his speech which is the canon of arrangement. Then, I will illustrate how he instructed the audience which is the canon of style.…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the essay Nixon’s Flawed Search for Peace by Melvin Small, he criticizes some of Richard Nixon’s Vietnam policies. Small had a rather bitter view of Richard Nixon suggesting some interesting points about how his policies and procedures did not follow through in the correct way. When Nixon first came in to office he wanted to end the Vietnam war and bring our troops home. Doing this would be difficult for him because he wanted to portray to the American people that we won the war, even though that would be very hard to do considering you were having more troops being sent home every day. Nixon was “convinced that how we end this war will determine the future of the U.S. in the world.”…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On August 8, 1974, President at the time Richard Nixon declared the end of his presidency. He finalizes his resignation by saying he hopes to have a positive legacy as “[he] leaves the Presidency” (Nixon par. 34). Nixon then became the first president of the United States to resign from the presidency in fear of impeachment. The reason for his resignation changed and challenged politics forever and notably, is the turning point that created a divide between the people and the government. On June 17, 1972, Richard Nixon was running for reelection in a country that was deeply divided and heavily still in war.…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Nixon writes his speech during the first year of his presidency about the war in Vietnam, an unpopular war with the general public. A strong anti-war movement was stirring in america. Left-sided people were joining peaceful revolts to end the war, and there was a large state of unrest among the american people. The beliefs of Nixon do not coincide with these trends in the country. In this speech, Nixon does his best to defend his stance on the war and his foreign policy.…

    • 1362 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Dramatic pentadic criticism allows us to define what types of situations are effective in enabling the communicator to maintain or regain their public image (Griffin, 305). That is, as Nixon speaks, he indicates how he perceives the world. Results from this analysis reveal what he regarded as the appropriate response, and how the rhetorical choices made in his speech affected the audience’s…

    • 1637 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In her eulogy honoring former president Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher used various rhetorical strategies, including an appeal to Ethos and parallelism, to convey what an influential figure Reagan was as both a president and a man, following his retirement. Through her intricate use of these rhetorical strategies, Thatcher expresses that Reagan was a great president for the United States and an excellent diplomat for the international community. Thatcher begins with a concise and abrupt introduction to the speech; this establishes the fact that the former president has passed on and presents a reflective tone which reveals her vast knowledge of Reagan. The parallelism present in “Lost a great president, a great American, and a great man” shows Thatcher’s respect for President Reagan by describing him as an overall “great” person. As Thatcher concludes her introduction, she states, “I have lost a dear friend”; this establish her credibility on the subject of Ronald Reagan as she has closely interacted with him.…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nixon says, and I quote, "I don't know why any individual…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Speak the words presidential scandal, and what goes through a person’s mind is Watergate. This scandal set a precedent for all other scandals. What started as a promising presidential career for Richard Nixon, quickly turned into the largest and most devastating scandals the United States has ever known. It was June 1972 a five man crew of Cuban descent were apprehended by the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, DC, in the offices of the Democratic National Committee. The report revealed that the crew was in possession of wiretapping equipment and cameras .…

    • 1450 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Richard Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, he became the only American President to ever resign from office on August 9th, 1974. The factors that led to his resignation cannot be boiled down to a single event, instead his somewhat cruel personality and unorthodox viewpoints led to the end of his political career. The Watergate scandal, a key event in the downfall of Richard Nixon, can be associated to his paranoia and his belief that some of his political rivals were bad people. To overcome them, he felt that he needed use any and every political weapon at his disposal to secure his place as president, even if that meant breaking the law. Nixon also believed that as president of the United States he was allowed to break certain…

    • 1549 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Baby Boomer Movement

    • 2504 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Sixty seven rounds fired in thirteen seconds killing four and wounding nine others at Kent State in Ohio drew the attention of the whole nation and brought the focus of millions of Americans to the antiwar movement. This event on May 4, 1970, when Ohio National Guard members fired at Kent State students, forever shocked and changed the nation and made the antiwar movement a headline in newspapers everywhere. No person in the population of the United States ever thought that our own soldiers would ever shoot other fellow American citizens, let alone kill four innocent people. This incident brought the antiwar movement to new heights and attracted more people into the movement than ever before. Although there were many parts to the evolution…

    • 2504 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nixon uses an allusion of Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote “that God must have loved the common people” to emphasizes the parallel in philosophies to one of the greatest presidents if not the greatest president. It is an establishment of the ethos argumentative technique that subconsciously compares Nixon Lincoln inside the American listeners head. Nixon also harnesses the technique of ad hominem to specifically call out the Democratic National Committee chairman holder Stevenson’s principles. It directly asserts that Stevenson is guilty, and is also used to criticize Democratic ideals. The Democratic Party was the one Nixon was running against so it would be beneficial to his campaign to see a fall in membership by slandering a key leader of the time.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On January 28, 1986 a disaster that was never thought imaginable happened, during the launch of the space shuttle challenger there was a “malfunction”, one that would lead to the death of 7 brave crew member and leave the nation in fear. Ronald Reagan emotional speech addressing the space shuttle challenger tragedy calms the people of the nation and helps them understand that the best course of action is to move forwards and continue the space program in honor of the fallen heros. Reagan uses repetition, pathos, and Juxtaposition in order to sympathize with the American people and convince them that the right course of action is to continue Americas quest into space. At the start of his speech Reagan uses repetition in order to connected with his audiences to show he understands the fear, and sorrow that has engulfed them, and to show that the 7 brave crew members of the challenger would want the quest into space to continue. By the time Reagan gave his speech more than 85% of Americans were informed about the space challenger tragedy, many of the citizens were struck with grief, “we’ve never had a tradery like this… we’ve forgotten the courage it took…

    • 965 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Within the speech he suggested to the American people to “let us begin.” By alluding to Kennedy’s speech he is able to shift into his own political agenda by stating “let us continue.” Now using the appeal of ethos, he once again uses the technique of anaphora to tell the American people “not to hesitate, not to pause.” Using the credibility of a once loved President, allows for Kennedy’s supporters to also support Johnson. This contrasts to the end of the section where he tells the American people “to act wisely, to act vigorously, to act speedily. . .”…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    He uses alliteration with the words that start with “s” such as simultaneous, states, steel, and the number six. He is giving a reason why it is wrong to do. President Kennedy has a connection with the American people. For instance, he uses third person pronoun such as “we”. The syntax of the speech in lines 41 and 43 is used to emphasize more…

    • 198 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Watergate Scandal Essay

    • 2288 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Richard Nixon was in one of the most controversial issues that the United States has ever seen. The Watergate Scandal is now well known throughout history today. This issue led to Nixon resigning only 2 years in his 2nd term. Did President Nixon make the right decisions? Can anyone really trust the government after a situation like this?…

    • 2288 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays