Obama's Acceptance Speech Analysis

Obamas acceptance speech starts off with a lot of repetition to open the speech; he thanks America three times to show his appreciation. I can also see that there are regular applause breaks in between his speech; this suggests he is speaking slowly as there is enough time to initiate applause. Another main focus that Obama seems to focus on throughout his speech is the extensive use of personal pronouns. He uses a lot of these such as ‘It moves forward because of you’, ‘Tonight, in this election, you, the American people’, ‘Whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone’. This example shows how he uses words like ‘you’ to make the speech more directly aimed at his American people, and make it personal to every individual stood listening to him.

 Obama’s speech is a very powerful one, a technique that he tends to use is to use the power of three as we can see throughout the acceptance speech, ‘we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come.’ This technique makes his words sound very powerful and inspiring.

Obama in this speech is very patriotic of America and he believes strongly in what his country can do. When he talks about the future of his children he goes on to say how proud of America he is. He says ‘We want to pass on a country that’s safe and respected and admired around the world, a nation that is defended by the strongest military on earth and the best troops this -- this world has ever known.’ At the very end he even goes on to say ‘and remind the world just why it is, that we live in the greatest nation on Earth.’ This is a very patriotic thing to do and Americans will want this from their president, so are applauding him a lot throughout his speech.

Obama also presents a very emotional side to him as he says ‘I’ve seen it in the soldiers who reenlist after losing a limb and in those SEALs who charged up the stairs into darkness and danger because they knew there was a buddy behind them watching their back.’ And ‘I am hopeful tonight because I’ve seen the spirit at work in America’. This shows how he can still express his power in this speech, while at the same time saying emotional words.

Finally when Obama closes his speech he uses a short sentence and the power of three again, to emphasise his words. But this time he repeats ‘God Bless’ as he says ‘Thank you, America. God bless you. God bless these United States.’ This shows his love and appreciation for being elected as president of the United States of America.