President George W. Bush - 9/11
On the evening of 11th September 2001, then US President George W Bush delivered a
speech on TV to the worldwide public, where he addresses the previously happened
terroristic attacks while calming down the nation and infusing the people with courage
and hope.
In his speech, Bush tries to connect to his audience to unite the nation.
To begin with, he makes frequent use of inclusive pronouns, especially of the 1st person
plural, to establish a feeling of togetherness with his audience (ll 7-8). Moreover he also
repeatedly uses the 1st person singular when talking about the measures that were
taken in response to the attacks, which establishes a personal and trustful relationship
between the president and his nation. This is crucial in this critical situation because
Bush wants to emphasize that “no one will keep [the brightest beacon for freedom and
opportunity in the world] from shining” (ll 11-12).
Another strategy Bush employs in order to engage his audience is the use of emotive
language to describe the diversity and extent of the mass of victims (ll. 3-4). This
triggers off emotions and makes the audience even more aware of the cruelty of the
attacks since it is easier to sympathize with “secretaries, businessmen and women,
federal workers; moms and dads; friends and neighbors” (ll 3- 4) than it would be with
abstract terms like “citizens”.
At the beginning of the text, the president also honestly describes “the pictures of
airplanes flying into buildings [and how] huge structures [were] collapsing” without
trivializing the events which makes him appear more truthful and authentic (ll. 5 -6).
Furthermore, the solemn and serious remark makes the audience aware of the
importance and seriousness of the speech.
In his opening words, he states “our fellow citizens, our way of life [and] our very
freedom” as the target of “evil, despicable acts of terror (l. 1, l.4)”. This anaphora
stresses that everyone and their values, and not only the innocent victims that died,
were attacked that day. Moreover the parallel and elliptic structure gives rhythm to the
words which makes the words more memorable.
President George W. Bush - 9/11
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As already indicated earlier, the author gives a visual and honest description of events
that happened without playing anything down. Especially pictorial descriptions like “fires
burning” or “huge structures collapsing” help the audience visualize the extent of the
consequences of the attacks (ll 5 -6).
The usage of negatively connotated terms when describing the terroristic acts as
“deliberate and deadly” (l. 2) further emphasizes the authors’ negative attitude towards
the events that happened. By doing this, he tries to put the opposing side in the worst
light possible.
On the other hand, Bush benefits from the use of superlatives as well as positive and
valued terms in metaphors, for example when he describes America as “the brightest
beacon for freedom and opportunity” (ll. 12-13). This metaphor creates an atmosphere
of positivity amongst the people which is extremely crucial in tough times. To a greater
extent, Bush also tries to strengthen the nations’ bond by using the metaphor that
“these acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.” (ll. 1011) to further emphasize the strength of his country.
Another striking metaphor can be found in an antithesis in lines 14 -15, where Bush
claims that “[his] nation saw evil [and] responded with the best of America”. This is
another way of creating even more contrast between the attackers and America to really
put the Land of Liberty above “the very worst of human nature” (l. 14).
In the subsequent words, Bush further explains the human strengths of America, by
naming the “daring of our rescue workers” or the “caring for strangers and neighbors” as
examples in a parallelism & anaphora to, again, focus on the power and robustness as
well as the human aspects that make up the United States of America (l.15 ).
President George W. Bush - 9/11
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