Ella Gordon Personal Response to Obama Speech 7th November, 2008
Barack Obama’s acceptance speech after being elected to be the USA’s 44th president was powerful and moving for many reasons. The ways in which he appealed to his audience were key in the positive and emotional response he received.
Throughout the speech, Obama maintains the theme of small things being able to grow into anything. In the section entitled “Victory for the People”, this is very much present, as he describes how his campaign “didn’t start with much money”, and didn’t begin in grand government buildings in the country’s capital, but “in the backyards of Des Moines…and the front porches of Charleston”. He talks about how working people scraped together “what little savings they had” to contribute small amounts of money to the cause. Obama describes how the campaign became stronger because of the millions of Americans, young and old, who volunteered and created support for his cause. All of this creates an image of unity and limitless possibility for anyone who wants to have success in life. This, of course, is reflected in Obama’s own improbable story, having been a mixed-race Kenyan-American raised by his grandparents and having relatively little political experience, yet managing to be elected president of the most influential and powerful country in the world. Obama adds to his message of unity by describing his victory as “your victory” – meaning that it is the American people who have brought about this change and who have managed to get their voices heard; although he is the one standing on the podium making an acceptance speech, it was them who succeeded in putting him there.
