Abstract: The supporting speech for American general election given by Michelle Obama, the first lady of the USA then, in Charlotte on the night of September 4, 2012, has gained much popularity and won the consistent high praise. The speech has achieved such great success that it made a great help to the re-election of the presidency of her husband Barack Obama. The thesis makes a discourse analysis of Michelle Obama’s speech, commenting on the application of rhetorics and structure design in the speech. The emphasis is on five kinds of traditional English rhetoric, which are simile , metaphor , parallelism , alliteration and antithesis, and two kinds of new rhetoric, i.e. sympathy identity and opposition identity.

Key words: Michelle Obama (Mrs. Obama); supporting election speech; traditional rhetoric; new rhetoric

CONTENTS

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction .. 1

2. Literature Review  2

 Definition of Discourse Analysis

3. Rhetorics Implied in Michelle Obama’s Speech 2

3.1Figues of Speech

3.1.1 Simile and Metaphor

3.1.2 Parallelism

3.1.3 Alliteration

3.1.4 Antithesis

3.2.New Rhetorics

3.2.1 Sympathy Identity

 3.2.2 Opposition Identity

4. Interpretation of Factors of the Popularity of Michelle’s Speech 8

4.1 Being Close to the Public

4.2 Being Reliable

4.3 Being Simple and Humorous

5. Conclusion 9

Bibliography .10

Acknowledgements.11