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.