President Obama's Inaugural Address: Rhetorical Analysis Barrack Obama's inaugural address successfully achieved its goal by using rhetoric to assure our nation that it will be in safe hands. The speech is similar to ideas obtained from the founding documents and Martin Luther King's speech to establish "our" goal to come together and take action on the problems our country now faces. When President Barrack Obama begins his speech, he avoids using "me", "myself" and "I" and replaces it with "we", "us" and "together" to achieve ethos. He makes sure his audience connects directly with him by making them feel on his level and him on theirs. This way he connects to the audience and, in return, helps his statement of unity. Using various examples of parallelism, anaphora and refrain, Obama emphasizes throughout the speech the theme of equality and solidarity in our country, which is fundamental to earning the respect of his audience. Obama recalls the 'enduring strength of the Constitution' by delving into the past by alluding to America's loyalty to the Declaration of Independence by citing "we hold these truths... that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." This expression clearly shows more ethics reminding us that the quote about equality is of great importance today as it was at the time it was written. In light of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, which occurred on the same day as that year's speech, President Barrack Obama linked his speech closely to Martin's, both because of the importance of unification, both for language and structure. Our president takes us into the past, telling us that freedom was more of a thing taken rather than given. Use logos to re... middle of paper... for everyone. Concluding his speech, the president reminds us that we are hope; we ARE the change. Obama concludes his speech by thanking God and proclaiming: "may He bless this United States of America forever." For the final push of ethics to conclude his speech. References"Martin Luther King Jr." - Acceptance speech. The Novel Foundation, n.d. Web. April 22, 2014. "President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address." The White House. The White House and the Web. April 22, 2014. "Office of the President." James Madison University. Np, nd Web. April 22. 2014. .