Mendoza 1

Jonah Mendoza

16 July 2019

ENGL-1302

Short Academic Response 2

For my rhetorical analysis essay, I chose Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize speech in

2009 as my main topic for the assignment. The speech discusses Obama’s acceptance of his

award for strengthening international relationships as the 44th US President and the relations with

war and peace. The argument that Obama makes in his speech is that he believes that war isn’t

the right answer to create peace but rather “it merely creates new and more complicated ones.” In

other words, war tends to develop more issues within other countries that are caused by it.

Additionally, he continues to discuss his perspective of the conflicts that has occurred with other

countries as part of the reason for his acceptance of the award he earned. While the US citizens

generally believe that war can prevented to create peace in the world, Obama states that he faces

the world as it is and face any threats that can harm the American people while having faith in

the possibility of peace in the world.

Throughout his speech, Obama’s use of logos gives support to his own claims by using

past events of US history as evidence. For example, he refers to the Universal Declaration of

Human Rights which was a document that protected human rights and then he claims that peace

is a hollow promise if human rights weren’t protected. The use of ethos comes from his

acceptance speech which leads up to his explanation of how becomes involved in war. This part

of Obama’s speech provides a form of advice to his audience how he deals with the conflicts

with the mind of a US president. Between the three appeals, this speech lacks pathos because it is
 Mendoza 2

not worth encouraging the targeted audience to follow Obama’s purpose of his speech in an

emotional way. The main purpose of the speech is to explain his own ideas and beliefs on war

and peace.
 Mendoza 3

Works Cited:

"Barack Obama's Nobel Lecture." CommonLit. 17 July 2019

https://www.commonlit.org/en/texts/barack-obama-s-nobel-lecture?search_id=22705597

"How Obama's Nobel Prize speech became a guide to his wartime decision-making." The

Washington Post. WP Company. 16 July 2019

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/obama-legacy/nobel-peace-prize-oslo-

2009-speech.html?noredirect=on