Obama, Aristotle, and Fred Astaire

January 27, 2009 by Jerry 

An accomplished orator, and Barack Obama is a very accomplished orator, has at his disposal a repertory of classic rhetorical devices – dating back to Aristotle – to enhance the expression of ideas in a speech. Our new president’s eloquence was best described by the chief book critic of The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani, “his appreciation of the magic of language and his ardent love of reading have … endowed him with a rare ability to communicate his ideas…to persuade and uplift and inspire.”

In The Power Presenter, I described several tropes he has used throughout his ascent to the presidency. It should come as no surprise then that he turned to some of them again for his high profile Inaugural Address.

  • Antithesis is a figure of balance in which two contrasting ideas are juxtaposed in adjacent phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Obama contrasted new and old in consecutive sentences. “Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old.”

And then in contrasting successive phrases, “we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

  • Alliteration is a form of emphasis through the repetition of initial consonant letters or sounds across successive sentences, clauses, or phrases.

Obama repeated the “p” sound in successive phrases, “Our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use.”

  • Anaphora is a repetition of the first word or set of words at the beginning of successive sentences or phrases.

Obama repeated the words, “this is” in three consecutive sentences. “This is the price and the promise of citizenship. This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny. This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed.”

  • Tricolon

In an article in the Financial Times, Sam Leith, the literary editor of London’s Daily Telegraph, anticipated that Obama would use a rhetorical device called a “tricolon,” that he defined as “three terms in ascending order such as ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’; or Lincoln’s, ‘with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right’ … and Obama, like most politicians, is addicted to it.”

Leith was correct. Obama used three phrases with the same structure, “…that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself.”

  • Quotations. Skilled writers reference earlier sources as validation of their themes; one of the earliest and most frequently quoted source is the Bible.

Obama reached back to Corinthians for, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things;” and brought it forward to 2009, “We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.”

From the sacred to the secular, Obama also quoted popular music, “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

The key words in Obama’s sentence are from a song written by Dorothy Fields with music by Jerome Kern, and sung by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the 1936 film, Swing Time.

Watch Fred and Ginger perform it on YouTube and you’re certain to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and – swing.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Obama, Aristotle, and Fred Astaire”

  1. social development on February 23rd, 2009 12:01 am

    social development…

    I hear ya’…

  2. subconscious on February 23rd, 2009 1:23 pm

    subconscious…

    I find that if you focus on yourself more than anything else a world of problems disappear…

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