Michelle Obama’s DNC speech | Analysis

Indledning
Hand in hand with the election back in 2020, a lot of people were out speaking for the two candi-dates. During the last President, Donald Trump, many things were not handled the way they should have been handled.

As a result of this, Joe Biden and his supporters make sure that their audience knows exactly this. Therefore, it has become decisive that the presidents in the election are experienced in politics and being in control.

This essay will give an example of exactly this, through a rhetorical analysis of Michelle Obama’s DNC speech, which will focus on the modes of persuasion and linguistic features of the speech. Lastly, I will assess if Michelle Obama is successful in communicating her message.

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Uddrag
Michelle Obama targets 3 main audiences. The ones who have suffered because of the COVID-19 pandemic: “People who are delivering those packages, stocking those shelves, and doing all that essential work so that all of us can keep moving forward”.

She acknowledge them and support them during the hard times. Second, the US citizens who decided not to vote in during the previous election: “Four years ago too many people chose to believe that their votes didn’t matter”.

Lastly, the African Americans who were involved in the “Black Lives Matter” movement. She makes them feel heard:

“Because whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy”.

Michelle Obama uses a formal style in her speech. It is suitable for the political context and the serious message of her speech.

For the most part, Michelle Obama uses middle-length and long sentences. This shows the importance of her message. A long sentence is used when she addresses her speech to the whole nation:

“I know that regardless of our race, age, religion, or politics, when we close out the noise and the fear and truly open our hearts, we know that what is going on in this country is just not right”.

Shorter sentences are used when Michelle Obama wants to focus on Donald Trump and his lack of qualifications in the role of President: “Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country”.

When Michelle Obama uses terms like “folks” and “in the lurch” she appears as a part of the people. These informal features are introduced with the purpose of making Michelle Obama ap-pear more empathic.