State of the Union 2011

The Analysis of this speech revealed some similarities and also differences as compared to Obama's State of the Union from previous year. Both speeches are highly motivated to urge people to do something as there are lots of examples of direct commands, such in: " So, yes, the world has changed. The competition for jobs is real. But this shouldn't discourage us. It should challenge us."

There are lots of encouraging and positive evaluation which purpose is to depict the United States as the most powerful and mighty place on the Earth, e.g.: " We're the home for to the world's best colleges and universities, where more students come to study than any place on Earth." However, this passage may be seen just as rhetorical one as elsewhere in the speech Obama criticizes the recent state of the education system in the United States: " Think about it. Over the next 10 years, nearly half of all new jobs will require the education that goes beyond a high school education. And yet, as many as a quarter of our students aren't even finishing high school. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. America has fallen to ninth in the proportion of young people with a college degree." In a similar way, Obama has also expressed his anxiety in the State of the Union from 2010; so it seems evident that the words about the strength of the United states in the field of education are only one of the rhetorical devices how to evoke the listener's interest, pride and consequently mutual solidarity, unity and willingness to do something for their might nation.

The speech was delivered at the year when no elections in the United States are planned, so the overall tone is not so " swollen" as in that of previous year. It might be just guessed that this kind of electioneering will have to be part of the speech of 2012 when the election campaign will be more or less slowly in the progress.

It is a relatively major effort to bring real stories to the listeners that could be found instead of the clear electioneering in this State of the Union, though some hints of open agitation could be found here as well. The allusion to the concrete, real people who wrote him or who did some of the extraordinary fact makes the speech to be more attractive and entertaining and therefore it suits better for media with their passion for such stories. It also emphasizes an impression that the president of the United States is reading all letters that American citizens have sent him or simply that he is not indifferent to the ordinary problems of the ordinary people. An example of such presentation may be exemplified by this passage: " one mother of two, a woman named Kathy Proctor, had worked in the furniture industry since she was 18 years old. And she told me she's earning her degree in biotechnology now, at 55 years old, not just because the furniture jobs are gone, but because she wants to inspire her children to pursue their dreams, too. As Kathy said: " I hope it tells them to never give up"." It could be guessed whether such person really lived or whether she had said what Obama proclaimed; nevertheless, it could be acknowledged that it might have an effect of successful persuasion.

It must be added here, that also this transcript of the speech is noted down with all marks of consensus, i.e. applause or laughter, as in the previous speech. Both speeches, furthermore, resemble in the effort to explain some steps that have been done and the steps that should be undertaken just in the future. However, as some of the steps, for instance in the field of reform of US education system, have not been fully realized it seems that both passages dealing with this topic are repeated in both speeches.

3.2.2 Obama's Foreign Speeches

First of all it is beneficial to realize one simple and clearly logical thing but one that should be born in mind: although the audience of all domestic speeches may slightly differ, it has a common feature that it was consisted of the members of one nation. The foreign speeches have also the common feature that they are simply devoted to foreign audience; however, this audience consisted of the members of various nations each time. The approach to these audiences might be probably influenced by different relationships of the United States to different nations; however, for the purpose of this thesis, it is crucial to remember that all speeches should be considered to be international and with this regard they are analyzed.