analysis

Linking words for your Analysis:

https://www.abiweb.de/englisch-methoden/methodisches-vorwissen-uebersicht/linking-words-formulierungen-argumentation.html

Stylistic devices:

https://freie-referate.de/englisch/stylistic-devices-stilistische-mittel

Sophie

On the 4 September 2012, Michelle Obama the former First Lady spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. In her speech she appeals to the people that the American Dream may be hard to achieve but it is possible. From line 1-18 she speaks about her positive experiences with American people during her 1st years as First Lady. She evoke pride in the audience and reflects her hope and optimism. In the part line 19 – 47 Michelle refers to her old life when her family was not wealthy but her dad gave her the chance to go to college. She also mentions the parallels of Barack and her growing up. They have the same social background. This way the audience can bond with her and she motivates them to keep going. This also shows that the American Dream is achievable even though you might not have enough money. | The next paragraph is from line 48-108 she speaks about the importance of work to get success. She also explains what her values are and refers to the inequalities at workplaces for man and woman. Michelle lists up the achievement in Barack’s position as president which are related to his own personal experiences. With this topics she tries to motivate the audience to get a job and that they have hope in the politics. | The paragraph from line 109-153 shows her values of the elements of the American Dream. The parallels to her family she uses to show that the American Dream is a process, a way that is worth going. Michelle also mentions counter arguments/objections. This shows that she is not ignorant but determined to fight them. To underline her arguments she uses several stylistic devices. Though the whole text she makes use of the personal pronoun “I” to make the speech more personal and to make the audience feel more at ease/comfortable because the speech does not sound so formal but rather familiar. Michelle uses other personal pronouns like “we” and “you” too to include the audience and to arouse the feeling of solidarity. She also uses enumerations like “their unconditional love, their unflinching sacrifice, and the chance to go to places” (ll.23-25) they are showing the amount of values that their parents gave them. It also emphasizes that she is respecting everyone. “They didn’t … they admired …” (ll.63-66) is a repetition and is used to draw attention to her own personal experiences. The parallelism “you do not slam it shut behind you… you reach back” (l. 120) is used to underline the dependence on other peoples help. Michelle also used the quote “I may not have a chance to fulfill my dreams, but maybe my children will … maybe my grandchildren will” (ll.139f) to motivate the audience especially woman to fight for what they want. She employs a lot of positive and optimistic words like “honesty and integrity” (l.79) in her speech to give people hope that the American Dream is still achievable. She often uses long sentences though no complex syntax. Her frequent use of verbs in the past tense like “learned” (l.79) shows what they have already achieved and what their common experiences are. Adjectives are used to help her illustrate her main ideas and make her speech more creative. To reflect how americans usally talk and so there is no distance between the speaker and the listeners she uses short forms like ”I’ve, weren’t, it’s”. Her tone during her speech is very positive. Motivating and sometimes emotional. All in all Michelle Obama uses good stylistic devices, a simple syntax and a positive and optimistic tone.

Jennifer

The political speech First Lady Michelle Obama speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. , which is spoken by Michelle Obama and hold at the 4. September 2012 underlines the positive and negative sides of reaching for the American Dream. The speech is about the view of First Lady Michelle Obama in context to the American Dream and how to get each life in a better way. She says facts about the American history and the ups and downs they had to live with. She tells her life as an example for reaching the American Dream. The speech shows the effect of living in America today and how the people hope for their own dreams. She points out her facts of being motivated to search for this together as a nation without any limits of your religion and so on. She also helps them to fight for their dreams and to live in togetherness. So in the first part of her speech Michelle Obama begins with an introduction in which she immediately names how proud she is of her country and to be able to speak in front of so many people ( cf. l.1-4 ). It refers to the appropriation each person should give to the other as ‘unconditional love ‘ ( l. 23 ) and wants to say that it is for justice and above all a respectful treatment of people with each other and supports this. She also wants to appeal at the audience that everybody, especially the kids and grandkids should have a chance to go to college and to achieve their dreams. At this point she mentions the point of view from her husband Barack Obama and that he lived his life in a hard way with not much money, reaching for his dreams and that this is one of the most important things in life. To hope and to do something for it. He knows what it means to pursue the American Dream and the desire to be happy and content to live. To give an example she says ‘ He knows what it means to want something more for your kids and grandkids ‘ ( l. 112-114 ). This underlines his social character and that everybody should give their kids the opportunity to live their life the good way and to fight for their own American Dream. The anaphora ‘ Because Barack knows… ‘ ( l. 110 ) and ‘ He knows ‘ ( l. 112 ) shows this again. Michelle Obama has the opinion, that everyone ‘ whether you ‘re a Democrat, a Republican or none of the above ‘ ( l.128 ) that everybody in this country has the chance to work and to have a good job, not necessary if they are young or old, man or woman. The line 107 to line 109 ‘ jobs … good jobs ‘ with the stylistic device of an amplification demonstrates this as well. Above all, it emphasizes , that children should be improved so that even more people follow their longings. With the use of personal pronouns like ‘ I ‘ ( l. 44 ) or ‘ You ‘ ( l. 92 ) she reaches the attention of the audience and makes the speech informal, so that the people feel understood and could follow her easier. But she not only things about living the dream, she also reminds the audience of the problems and bad sides of America, so that the readership knows that she is not only focused on the positive things that happen. She concentrates on the hard way, America had to deal with, to be the country like it is today ( cf. l. 150-153 ) and that there were times of fearness but that they can do something against it together. This has the effect that the speech gets more emotional. To sum up, she wants the audience to stand up and fight for their dreams and to rise for the chance to have a better life.

Kristin

On the 4th September Michelle Obama held a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. In her Speech she talks about a modern version of the American Dream and encourages her audience to not lose hope in it. She starts of by mentioning experiences from her past years the as First Lady (l. 5 - 10). In this paragraph she uses the anaphora “I have“ to underline her experiences and to show her optimism that the American Dream is still achievable. She uses another anaphora “Barack knows“ (l.110-114) this further strengthens the connection to the audience and helps them to feel like someone understands their struggles with the American Dream. In line 161 she makes an allusion to Martin Luther King “lift us to the Mountaintop“ by using a sentence associated with Martin Luther King she evokes a very hopeful image in the listeners mind. Because Martin Luther King fought for his dream and he achieved it. This gives the audience a sense of security in achieving their own dreams. She shows what her expectations of the American Dreams are in the paragraph from line 74 to line 90 by doing this she gives her listeners an idea of what her goals and ambitions are. The First Lady aslo uses a lot of personal prouns such as “we“ or “you“ this makes her speech much more personal and creates a comfortable atmosphere for the audience. Throughout Speech M. Obama also uses optimistic and hoopeful words such as “dignity and decency“ (l. 79). These help the audience regain trust in the American Dream. Her choice of wordsis informal as she uses abbrevations which is typical for an oral speech and long sentences though no complex syntax. Through her way of speaking, her speech is easier to understand and therfore it is more accessible. All of this gives her speech a very motivational and optimistic tone which makes the audience feel very supportive towards the First lady. To conclude by making her speech accessible to a lot of people and connecting to the audience. Throughout it she gives the audience a sense of hope that the American Dream is real and achievable.