Rhetorical Analysis Of Gore Persuasive Speech

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Analytical Essay On April 25th, a Sunday in 1999, Al Gore addressed the grieving families of the numerous victims of the Columbine High School massacre. This worst of all shootings ever to happen on American soil had occurred just five days previous. While the shocked nation looked on, Gore attempted to make sense of a senseless act, and bring solace to a community wild with grief and confusion. Gore’s first words to the assembled crowd were simple and straightforward: “Nothing I can say to you can bring you comfort.” This was a very powerful use of an intricate rhetoric, for Gore went on to call on a Higher Authority than himself, the Lord God, as the only Source able to provide the kind of comfort needed in such a terrible crisis. Given the incomprehensible events of the massacre, this was an emotionally sensitive as well as logical stance. If you were to put yourself in the place of the friends and family of the victims, Gore’s position becomes ever clearer. If Al Gore had told the audience…show more content…
It put the audience staring down the guns of the two high school murderers. It made all collectively share the victims’ own horror. For the survivors, who must have felt as their own hearts had been shot, it acknowledged that unlike the deceased, each would continue to feel the pain. With half the speech leading up to this peak moment and half coming back down to composure, this powerful sentence was placed rightly. Another well written question: “What do we say to this tragedy?” Just before, Gore told us what Cassie Bernall said as she watched the vicious firearm aimed at her, “Yes, I do believe in God.” Gore was counseling his audience to find comfort and hope and forgiveness in God. There is no other way to escape the weapon of

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