My Thought on Obama's Acceptance of the Candidacy Speech

As we read his speech in class and I finished off reading it on my own, it is kind of boring. But it provided lots of causes, facts, and enough details about the United State of America. However, when I was watching his speech while reading it, I found it is more powerful, more interesting, and more passionate. Besides, it feels like someone is telling you a story.

In his speech, he used various rhetorical and literary devices, such as anecdote, reader inclusion, repetition, personification, rhetorical questions, and etc. The most rhetorical devices I found are rhetorical questions and repetitions. For example, “Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?” the whole paragraph is about rhetorical questions. It was being used here because the questions does not require an answer either because it is self-evident or because the answer is not really known. “I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.” This paragraph is about repetitions. As I mentioned before, there are a lot of repetitions in his speech, for making the audiences understand what he wants to give to them and making his speech more powerful.

I was impressed by how stern and serious Obama was, as compared to his standard stump speech, and that was exactly how he needed to be. His goal was to convince Democrats and swing voters who are on the fence that he is ready to lead, and he did a good job of projecting that. I noticed that he addressed the attacks from John McCain. He did a good job of striking back but by doing so he presented himself as a typical politician and not an agent of change. He explained that Republicans used fear to sway voters and then told us all the horrors we face and how we would get more of them if we elected McCain. Sounded like fear mongering.