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.

Lea

The speech by Michelle Obama on the 4th september 2012 at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte N.C is about the American Dream. Michelle talks about her experiences with people who expressed her as she was First Lady. Then she explain to the audience that Barack and her were raised on the same way: their family had not much money, so the parents had to work a lot to give their kids a chance of a good life. She wants her audience to know that everyone has a chance to live the American Dream if they work hard for it. All in all Michelle try to give the people hope that the American Dream is achievable and uses her own experiences to make the message clear.

As I have pointed out in the first part of my composition, the speaker Michelle Obama wants her audience to know that everyone has a chance of a good life by working for it. In order to bring this message across she uses several rhetorical devices, which are going to be analysed in the following. At the beginning of her speech she uses the personal pronoun “I” (l.2), which make the speech more personal and interesting because the audience feels involved and welcome because she talk about her own experiences with them. Besides it is not that formal, it is rather familiar. It goes on in line eight, eleven and fourteen with the repetition “I have seen” or “I’ve seen”. It really draws attention to her own experience in life like what kind of people she met, so the listeners notice it more. “You” (l.19) is the second used personal pronoun in her speech, which is a direct address and a appeal to the audience for fighting. So she wants them to understand that they have to fight or to work hard for their dreams. Another used personal pronoun is “we” (l.165). It has the effect that the audience feels involved, so they know that they are humans like Michelle who can work and have success with the same chances. Altogether Michelle Obama uses an informal language which make the speech easier to understand and more sympathic because it reflects the normal spoken language of the Americans. To motivate the audience and give them hope or the chance of positive thinking she uses several optimistic words like “proud” (l.34), “success” (l.41) and “humility” (l.84). To conclude Michelle Obama uses some rhetorical devices like personal pronouns or also repetitions to make clear that every person can have success through working with the consequence of having a chance to live the typical American Dream. She knows that it is a hard way but wants to give the audience the needed motivation and hope, so she uses many positive words, which increase the message.

Vanessa

The speech given by the former First Lady Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. on 4 September 2012, deals with the progess of achieving the American Dream by refering to her own experiences. Her purpose is to persuade the large audience, which might be enthusiastic national citizens which have the common vision that everybody can achieve their aims.

In the first few lines the speaker informs the audience about her positive experiences with people in America during her first year as First Lady to evoke pride in the audience by refelecting her hope and optimism for this country. Furthermore, she continues to relate to her and Barack´s parallels of growing up with the same social family background, what builds a connection to approach to the listeners. In addition to that she explains with reference to her own childhood that the most important ideal is love and good relations. Besides, she makes clear that the effort of working leads to success whether you might not have enough money in reference to her family. In context to that she lits up the achievements in Barack´s policies as president which are related to his own personal experiences. So far she wants to motivate people to get a job, to consider the values during their worthgoing process and to remind of being solidary. Later on, she mentiones counterarguments, what shows that she is not ignorant of these but determinate to fight them and to spread hope and power to the audience. Finally, she states positives examples of people who did not seem able to realize the America Dream to appeal the listeners to go on fighting for the American Dream.

Throughout her speech Michelle Obama employs a number of stylistic devices to emphasize her point of view. First of all, it is quite obviously that she tries to direct address the audience to let them feel more involved by the permanent use of the personal pronoun “you“(ll.19,38,etc.). In context with the American Dream the First Lady appeals the audience to fight for their aims and dreams. She further emphasize that she is respecting everyone without any limits regarding to the enumeration in lines 117 – 118 that your heritage or nationatily is not preventing you from achieving your aims regarding to the equals rights for same possibilities for everybody. She then goes on drawing attention to her experiences by the use of the parallelism “We learned about“(ll. 74,79,84) to point out the values which guide them to achieve the American Dream. Thus she makes clear by using the alliteration “ dignity and decency“(l. 74) that everybody should keep those values in mind as guidline to reach your own state of satisfaction and to fulfill your dreams. In addition to that she is direct addresssing the listeners by the use of the personal pronoun “We“( 74,79,88) to arouse a feeling of solidarity and to effect a personal atmosphere between her and the audience. Further she reminds the audience of the success of the country that they effort and hope can “lift (them) to the mountaintop“(ll 161-162). In context to that it is another motivation to keep on fighting for their aims and to work hard to reach their destination.

Regarding to her use of informal language it is becoming clear that she makes use of short forms what shows that she is refelecting how the Americans usually talk. Due to that fact, it is easier to understand and to identify with her. Futhermore, she employs lots of positive and optimistic words that give people hope to still achieve the American Dream. In addition to that is obiviously that she uses long sentences although they do not include much complex for example when she is repeating a fact in several phrases(ll.19, 44-45) Addionally, it is apparently that she is connecting the American Dream with aspects like “success“(41,82) and “values“(91, 88) what shows that the choice of words effects that the message of the text is standing in a positiv light. Besides, she uses verbs in the past tense purposely to relate on what they have already achieved and her experiences ( e.g.we learned). At the same time she makes use of positiv and optimistics adjectives which help to illustrate her main ideas and to make her speech more creativ for example to decribe the American dream as a “slow“(l.134) change to stress that it is a long process which is still alive and reachable. With regard to her tone of her speech it can be said that the light of the speech is overall really positive for example when she includes the “unwavering hope“(l.170) in context that the Americans can reach everything by keep on working hard. In addition to that she is very motivating and optimistic and hopeful as well by reflecting their achieved values (ll.74-90) and the achievements from Barack´s politics for equal rights and conditions (ll. 94-108). In some way she is also emotional when she is speaking about her family.

In general I have come to the conclusion that the speech of Michelle Obama is really motivating especially if you as citizen do not have achieved the American Dream. I could imagine that she is an idol for many people out there because she reaches her aims from the middle class up to her position. All in all the speaker is conving and persuadinf in her vision to spread hope for the American Dream.

Alexandra

The speech given by the former First Lady Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention, N.C. on 4 September 2012 deals with her own experience of achieving the American Dream and that everyone can reach it too.

In the first few lines of the speech, she shares her own experience and wants to motivate the audience. Moreover, she has the same background, which has a connection to the listeners. In addition, she shows that the help you get from others people helps you to reach your goals. Despite, she makes the audience consider of the values and to stay hopeful. At least she mentions that even the unequal people can reach the American Dream.

First she uses the personal pronoun "I" (l. 2) to feel more comfortable with the audience and that it sounds more familiar. Moreover, she shows with enumeration"their unconditional love, their unflinching sacrifice, and the chance to go places they had never imagined for themselves"(ll. 23-25) that this is very important and an amount of advantages. And the audience should know that the support of the family is very important to reach your own goals. By the use of the repetition"he'd"(ll. 45f.) she emphasizes that it is better to memorize and even your family work hard, what you should do too. The metaphor"many people had a hand in our success"(ll. 85f.) is useful for a better understanding and it underlines that the help and cooperation is what you need to reach your destination. With the personal pronoun"You"(l.66) she wants to involve the audience and appeals them for fighting on. By the use of the parallelism"he knows"(ll. 110ff.) she emphasizes that she shares the same experience with the community, in order to build a connection to them. It also motivates the audience to fight for their aims and that they should stay hopeful. At least, it becomes clear that she makes use of the allusion "lift us to the mountain" (ll. 161f.) to stresses out that the hope and effort will lead to success l. And it should motivate them to work hard for achieving their goals.

Regarding to her use of informal language it is obviously that she makes use of short forms with the reasons that it is an oral speech and to be more familiar with the audience. In that context she speaks how the Americans usually talk. It also should support a better understanding and that the audience can identify with her. In addition, she uses lots of positive words to give the audience power and hope to achieve the American Dream.

However, she is not including complex sentences and makes lots of repetition(ll. 45-46). Additionally, it is apparently that the listeners connect the American Dream with "success" (l. 41) and "values" (ll.74,79,84). So far the text get in a positive light. At least, she uses the past tense to make clear what they already have achieved or experienced. Overall, it is a positive and optimistic speech to motivate the Americans. Besides she is very emotional, referring to her own experience.

All in all, I come to the conclusion that the speech is really motivating and lets the audience stay hopeful. And she points out that the American Dream is still reachable for everyone even you have hard times. The hard work and solidarity matters to make the American Dream true.