Analyse af Michelle Obamas tale ved portræt afsløring

Analysis of “Remarks by President Biden, First Lady Biden, Former President Obama, and Former First Lady Obama at the Unveiling of Official Obama White House Portraits” - Michelle Obamas part

Michelle Obama is known for her speeches and how they can impact such a wide audience. They are uplifting, give hope and are extremely well thought out. This makes her incredibly trustworthy, not to mention the amount of authority she has on American citizens. At the official unveiling of her portrait, she gives a thank you speech. Somehow, she manages to not only thank close family and friends, but also reach American everywhere, approach certain issues in a calm and underlying way and give people hope in their identity as an American. Through structure, stylistic devices and debate she presents a America that people want. So how does she present this? And what makes her speeches effortlessly thought out? And what kind of perspective does she put herself into?

Mrs. Obama constructs her speech in a way, where she starts by thanking people and instead chooses to save her actual speech last. In this way she symbolises how important the people are to her, and we get a sense of sympathy and understanding. She manages to transform a thank you speech, into a speech about issues in an underlying way, as she no longer has the authority to since she is no longer is first lady (her circumstances have changed). p. 8 ll. 86-91 “That is what this country is about. It’s not about blood or pedigree or wealth. It’s a place where everyone should have a fair shot, whether you’re a kid taking two buses and a train just 90 to get to school;…..”. Here she she briefly touches on subjects like undocumented immigrants (could also be a contrast/counter act to Trump’s opinions), inequality, feminism, the aggressive election. This gives her speech a larger meaning and the construction underlines her the meaning she wants the receiver to understand. She also does this at the end of her speech. Here she combines, as mentioned before, the underlying issues in America and then right after thanks President Biden. She gives meaning here, by saying Americans are in good hands and that these issues are being handed onto Bidens desk.