Rhetorical devices
Most speeches are constructed using various language techniques designed to capture the audience’s attention and make the speech appealing and captivating. Such language tricks are known as rhetorical devices.
Barack Obama's “A More Perfect Union” mostly relies on rhetorical devices like allusion and enumeration. Other relevant rhetorical devices the speaker uses are analogy, direct address, figurative speech, parallelism, repetitions, and rhetorical quest…
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Allusion
Barack Obama uses multiple allusions (references to past and present historical events, literature, etc.) to make associations with the topic of his speech.
For example, his speech starts with a contextual allusion. Because the speech is delivered in Philadelphia, where the Constitutional Convention was held and the US Constitution was signed in 1787, Barack Obama begins with a quotation from it: “ ‘We the people, in order to form a more perfect union ...’ ”(l. 3).
The speaker continues to make reference…
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Analogy
An analogy is a type of comparison between different events in which the speaker describes one event to explain the other.
In the speech, Barack Obama makes an analogy between the case of Reverend Wright and that of Geraldine Ferraro to suggest that dismissing certain issues leads to bigger problems: “We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as som…
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Direct Address
Barack Obama made his speech in front of an audience in Philadelphia. Consequently, his speech was directly addressed to those present there, but also to the greater American public.
In the speech, we can …
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Enumeration
Enumeration is an important rhetorical device in the speech. Barack Obama frequently turns to enumeration to emphasize a number of problems in American society, such as in the following two examples: “…a set of monumental problems — two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and …
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Repetition
Repetitions are used several times in the speech. Their purpose is to make ideas stick with the audience or to outline something that the speaker considers particularly important. In one example, Barack Obama repeats the word “Constitution” to remind the audience of the importance of the document in guaranteeing freedom…
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Rhetorical questions
Rhetorical questions are usually designed either to inspire reflection or to introduce replies to possible criticisms or counter-arguments. In the speech, Barack Obama uses a series of rhetorical questions to answer potential questions of the audience regarding his perspective on Reverend Wright:
Did I know him t…
