On the morning of September 11, 2001 the World Trade Center Towers one and two were destroyed in an act of terrorism. New York City and the entire country were shocked, traumatized, and infuriated. Later that day President George W. Bush gave a speech to the American people. President Bush’s five minute long speech was one of the most important and influential speeches of the 21st century. He got into the hearts and heads of the American people with the use of rhetoric.
Throughout the speech President Bush uses rhetorical language many times and in several different ways. He especially uses pathos all through his 9/11 speech. He gets to people’s emotions by trying to connect the victims and family to the listener by naming what all the people where, “secretaries, business men and women, military and federal workers, moms and dads, friends and neighbors. ” Any of those positions or roles could have been the listener’s mother, father, brother, sister, or friend.
George Bush uses lots of repetition in his speech. He uses words like “great”, “strong”, and “powerful” to describe America. He is presenting the theme that America as strong and powerful as ever, even though it has just been shattered and shell-shocked. As he talks about the people who conspired to destroy the towers and kill the U. S. citizens he uses the word evil multiple times. He never describes the enemies as just “people” they are terrorists and the worst of human nature.
In an article by Valentina Bartolucci in the Journal of Language and Politics, she states that, “This rhetorical move is part of the well-known ideological strategy of positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation…This rhetorical device is commonly adopted in political discourse and may be described in terms of a strategy of “prediction” in which the objective is to label social actors in particular ways – in this case, negatively. ” Bush puts the terrorists in the worst light he possibly can and makes America into the perfect image.
The Essay on George W Bush President People Speech
Subject: Inauguration During the Presidential inauguration held on January 20, 2001, George W. Bush was sworn in as the 43 rd President of the United States of America. The new President gave a short and to the point speech, afterwards George W. Bush along with his family and the former President, Bill Clinton, made their way to the inside of Capital Hill to soon leave for the traditional ...
When President Bush described the attackers in the worst light possible and by always calling them evil and referring to them as terrorist and keeping America in a positive light he uses rhetorical device of us against them mentality between the United States and the people who attacked the World Trade Centers. By doing this it made it so the Americans listing and watching almost had to agree with the President and America or they would be on the side of the terrorists. There are binaries in President Bush’s speech as well.
He is speaking about terrorist attacks that killed thousands of Americans and destroyed a vital part of New York City but he always talks about America in empowering terms. It’s a “beacon of hope shining on the world”, and things can take America on but they will not win because America is so strong and resilient. He also talks of how steel can be dented but not America’s steel then goes on to ask for the people to pray for the people whose worlds who have been shattered and those who have lost their sense of safety and security.
