In the speech, Obama begins by raising three important questions about the state of American democracy and the notion of the ‘American Dream’. Using an affirmative tone, the new president asked the audience – ‘If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible.
..’. As the first African-American ever to be elected to the highest seat of power, the president is himself a valuable answer to the question he raised.
The second paragraph of the speech begins with a metaphor – ‘It is the answer told by lines that stretched around the schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen’, which represents the millions of people who lent their voice and support to his cause and campaign. Maintaining the same affirmative posture, Obama continues to pose another question – Who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time’. He uses the word ‘dream’ to associate his question with the famous 1963 speech of Martin Luther King Jr. – ‘I have a Dream’. The president responds to the question posed by enumerating the minorities in the USA.
By this, Obama shows that the ‘Dream’ for which Martin Luther sacrificed his life and fought so hard through non-violence had indeed been realized. He completes this justification by saying – ‘we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red state and blue states: we are, and always will be, the United States of America’. The red and blue states used in this context represents the political parties that are usually favoured by people in the states namely the Republicans (red) and Democrats (Blue). At the end of this phrase, he calls for all citizens towards consolidation irrespective of the party they favour as they belong to the same nation.