Problem:
Author uses rethorical analyzis to analyze Obama's Dedication of the Parks Statue. Please explain how the author of this text uses rethorical moves like thesis, subclaims, evidence, signal phrases, tone, and certain kinds of paragraphs, logos, pathos, ethos, and kairos. Please explain rhetorical moves that the student author made while composing a scholarly rhetorical analysis.
United We Fight: Analysis of Obama's Dedication of the Parks Statue
Ever since the birth of the United States of America, people have been told to fight against injustice. The idea is ingrained in the very foundation of our nation; for instance, the Constitution ensures that the American people have the right to protest. This is a fact that Barack Obama highlighted in the speech he gave during the dedication ceremony for the Rosa Parks Statue that was placed in the National Statuary Hall of the United States Capital. In "Address Dedicating Rosa Parks Statue," Obama employs essential rhetorical moves that aid his intended implication that Americans need to honor Rosa Parks not just with a statue but also by fighting ongoing injustices.
In this speech Obama argues that to truly honor Rosa Parks Americans must do more than place her image in the nation's capital; they must also continue to fight against inequality by protesting and speaking out in various ways. He employs a brief narrative of Parks's life that is not meant to be a biography but rather to spotlight on all the ways she dedicated her time and energy to making America a more just place for minorities. In it, Obama calls out fellow Americans who make excuses when they see the societal wrongs committed in modern society; those who claim they do not have the power or time or money, as Parks had none of those things and still spurred one of the most impactful responses to injustice and served in the fight for civil rights in many inconspicuous ways. Essentially, this is an epideictic speech meant to argue that American citizens should be more like Parks. And his argument was strongly aided by the use of appropriate ethos, logos, pathos, and figurative language.
It was the right time for Obama to make this argument because it was during the time that he served as the first black president of the United States. If this address had been given during the Montgomery Bus Boycott he probably would've been killed for giving that specific speech. He would not have become president back then due to his ethnicity, nor would Rosa Parks had been honored at a national level-due to the rampant systemic racism that was openly enacted in our nation. However, once the nation had moved towards viewing minorities as fellow citizens who should have equal rights, as well as elected a black man as their leader, such a speech became kairotic. Additionally, the speech was given at a time when Rosa Parks would have been 100 years old, which in American culture seems to be a fitting time to honor or remember.
Obama builds his credibility-ethos-through showing respect, knowing his material, and revealing his religious nature. Ethos is the author's attempt to build credibility with their audience. The President signs off with a blessing for the country, revealing his religious nature: "And may God bless these United States of America" (Obama para 13). He is a believable speaker because he portrays himself as a righteous man through his adherence to Christian expectations, such as the speaking of a blessing upon our nation. Obama obviously took the time to get to know Rosa Parks on more than a Wikipedia level. He says, "A childhood friend once said about Mrs. Parks, 'Nobody ever bossed Rosa around and got away with it'" (Obama para 3). Here he reveals that he cared to know what the people who knew her-primary sources-had to reveal, instead of just relying on short blurbs from the internet. The president begins with niceties for all in the room, including his political "enemies": "Mr. Speaker, Leader Reid, Leader McConnell, Leader Pelosi, Assistant Leader Clyburn" (Obama para 1). In this statement, Obama is showing respect for leaders from his own party, as well as that of the Republicans; this reveals that he is a magnanimous man. To ensure his mixed audience was receptive to his speech and found him credible on the topic, Obama leaned on religion, politeness, and knowledge of the subject.
Obama uses logos to further people's knowledge on why they should fight against prejudice and discrimination. Logos is another rhetorical element that that attempts to build an argument by using logic and facts. He mentions Parks's impactful work after she became well-known: "Her quiet leadership would continue long after she became an icon of the civil rights movement, working with Congressman Conyers to find homes for the homeless, preparing disadvantaged youth for a path to success" (Obama para 8). This factual evidence helps the audience to realize that Parks did more than just protest discriminatory bus policies; she also did the work that all Americans can do-non-publicized giving of small amounts of time to better situations. Obama reminds his audience fighting injustice may not be easy, but it can be done by every kind of American, not just those with positions of power: "teachers and laborers, clergy and domestics" (Obama para 6). And he indicates the lengths to which these everyday people went to better the country for themselves and their fellow citizens: "through rain and cold and sweltering heat, day after day, week after week, month after month" (Obama para 6). These combined facts work to indicate that all kinds of people can fight injustice, no matter how hard, because it has already been done. He informs his audience that Rosa Parks fought for what was right even when she had no fame or power and no one else knew about it: "Long before she made headlines, she had stood up for freedom, stood up for equality-fighting for voting rights, rallying against discrimination in the criminal justice system, serving in the local chapter of the NAACP" (Obama para 8). By specifying her good deeds that she did before she was most prominent, he proposed that Americans should strive to do good even when they will not get fa from it. Through the use of logic and reasoning, President Barack Obama attempted to persuade people to fight for equal rights even when it may become difficult and when they do not have fame or power.
Obama's emotional appeals-his pathos-lean on the Bible and a Christian understanding. Pathos is the emotional appeals that an author uses to capture the audience's heart and emotions. He reminds Christians of a passage that should result in an emotional response from them: "'For now we see through a glass, darkly,' Scripture says, and it's true" (Obama para 9). This verse is meant to move those who believe in the Bible to realize they have been turning a blind eye to ongoing injustice, which is something the Bible indicates they should not do. He also juxtaposes the march around the walls of Jericho to the marching that protestors do to appeal to a Christian understanding or background: "And with that victory, the entire edifice of segregation, like the ancient walls of Jericho, began to slowly come tumbling down" (Obama, para 7). Here, he is insinuating that desegregation was a wall that finally crumbled because the protestors marched, much like the Israelites did upon God's bidding. He implies that God is the Creator and has placed in every human a knowing of what is good and what is worth fighting for: "Walking for respect, walking for freedom, driven by a solemn determination to affirm their God-given dignity" (Obama para 5). In this passage Obama is indicating once again that protesting is something that the Lord would wish of those who understand that some are being denied by man the blessings He has conferred upon them. President Barack Obama, striving to have the audience's attention, uses the rhetorical element pathos by leaning on Biblical beliefs and terms.
Obama utilizes figurative language to strengthen the effect of his Aristotelian Appeals. In particular, he leaned heavily on simile. He employs simile when mentioning the Biblical story of Jericho: "And with that victory, the entire edifice of segregation, like the ancient walls of Jericho, began to slowly come tumbling down" (Obama para 8). This simile is meant to reveal how his audience can be like the Children of God by following the same kind of instructions they were given-to walk (move) until the barriers of justice are removed. He is employing simile here to indicate that Americans should do the same: fighting for what He intends them to have. Obama also employs simile when he maintains that there are ongoing racial injustices in America: "we so often spend our lives as if in a fog, accepting injustice, rationalizing inequity, tolerating the intolerable" (Obama para 9). Describing US citizens as living in a fog, Obama confronts the audience of their naivety and laziness. This passage is also meant to work with the Biblical reference of "seeing through a glass darkly." Additionally, Obama uses simile when he compares respect to freedom: "Walking for respect, walking for freedom" (Obama para 5). By employing a repetitive beginning, he is indicating that respect and freedom are alike, that they are actually the same thing. Simile helped Obama prompt people to act against unjust doings in the United States.
Obama's speech, "Address Dedicating Rosa Park's Statue," had many rhetorical elements used to help convey his argument. Such elements included ethos, logos, pathos, and simile. These rhetorical moves were used to persuade his audience that they can ensure change through everyday protesting of ongoing injustice. He was especially arguing that Christians should feel compelled to do such work through his use of Biblical references. Essentially, Obama was trying to ensure that Rosa Parks's legend lived on, not just in the form of a statue, but in the form of embodied values through continued protests from everyday people-with or without recognizable powerful positions.