This
text can be identified as a political speech as it contains many typical
features of a speech such as persuasion, rhetorical devices, and an extensive
use of ethos, pathos, and logos. These distinct features along with fact that
it's directly addressing an audience means that this text can indeed by
identified as a political speech.
Without clear
context, the target audience of this text can be found by looking at clues
within the text to give us an idea of who this speech is aimed at. The line
" And fellow Americans, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, I say to you
tonight: We have more work to do" gives us many hints as to the audience. The
author is directly addressing Americans but goes on to identify different
political parties which leads us to the assumption that this is most likely
directed to voters in America. Also, in the line " let me express my deepest
gratitude for the privilege of addressing this convention" we see that the
author is addressing a political convention of some sort. Taking into
consideration the audience, the purpose of this speech is mainly to persuade
the audience to vote for a certain presidential candidate. This can clearly be
seen towards the end of the speech when the author says "I have no doubt
that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine,
the people will rise up in November, and John Kerry will be sworn in as
President, and John Edwards will be sworn in as Vice President, and this
country will reclaim its promise, and out of this long political darkness a
brighter day will come.". This
shows that the author is trying to persuade the audience to vote for John Kerry
and John Edwards by convincing them that these candidates are the better than
other candidates.
The
author begins by telling the history of his family and how he came to be in the
position of authority that he resides in now. They go on to talk about America
and it is clear that they hold it in very high esteem however they then point
out the struggles that some Americans are facing at the time. The author then
introduces the political candidate that he is trying to convince the audience
to vote for and he goes on to discuss John Kerry's values and beliefs as a
presidential candidate. At the end of the speech the author urges the audience
to vote for John Kerry in the presidential elections. The main idea of this
speech is that the people of America should vote for John Kerry because he is a
patriotic man who knows what is best for his country and will also do whatever
he can to help the people of America. The author has "no doubt that...the people will rise up...and John Kerry will be
sworn in as President." and believes that "this country will
reclaim its promise, and out of this long political darkness a brighter day
will come.".
The tone
of this speech is informative, instructional, and hopeful. The author uses many
stories and instances to inform the audience of the reasons why they should
vote for John Kerry and also the problems facing America. The tone is slightly instructional
when he tells the audience that they should go and vote for Kerry and Edwards. However,
his tone is also hopeful as he expresses his hope that the people of America will
answer this call to action. The author creates a mood of unification in the speech.
He removes any barriers such a race or political party in order to unify the
audience and address them together as one people. This is clearly seen when the
author states that "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America --
there is the United States of America. There is not a Black America and a White
America and Latino America and Asian America -- there’s the United States of
America.". In these two sentences he creates a potent mood of unification
among the audience and the people of America.
Seeing
as this text is a political speech, the author utilizes many rhetorical devices
in order to make the speech effective. Pathos is used to help the author
connect with the audience. To achieve this the author tells stories of people
he has met such as "the father that I met who was losing his job and
choking back the tears, wondering how he would pay 4500 dollars a month for the
drugs his son needs without the health benefits that he counted on". This
statement and others like it appeal to the emotions of the audience. The author
also uses ethos when he discusses the core American beliefs, values, and ideals
and attempts to establish John Kerry as the embodiment of these beliefs. There
are also many examples of anaphora within the text such as the repetition of
"John Kerry believes in". This repetition is used to emphasize the beliefs of the candidate and point out the main ideas. The
author's use of symploce in order to connect and identify with the audience is
seen when he says " if you feel the same energy that I do, if you feel the
same urgency that I do, if you feel the same passion that I do, if you feel the
same hopefulness that I do". Metaphor is used to effectively sum up the
author's hope for America when he says "out of this long political darkness a
brighter day will come". This extensive use of rhetorical devices helps
create emphasis on certain key ideas within the speech and also works to
further persuade the audience of what the author is saying.
In
conclusion, this text is a speech due to its heavy use of rhetorical devices and
the fact that it's trying to persuade the audience to do or believe something.
This target audience of this speech is clearly American voters and it calls
them to take action and vote for a certain political candidate. The author's
utilization of rhetorical devices along with the persuasive nature of the text
creates a strong a well-focused speech.
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