Speech by Bush: Applying The Method

The Method Exercise

Repeated words:

Evil x3
Strong x2


Patterns of repetition (Do not know if this is significant

“Foundations of our biggest buildings, foundation of America.”
“Acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.”
“With the daring, with the caring”
“For all (those who grieve), for (the children whose worlds have shattered), for all (whose sense of safety and security has been threatened).
“our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom”


Strands:

“Secretaries, business men and women, military and federal workers, moms and dads, friends and neighbors.”
“Disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger.”
“Evil--the very worst of human nature.”
“Condolences and assistance”
“justice, peace, good, just”
“Safety and security”
“The terrorists who committed these act and those who harbor them.”


Opposite Binaries:

“In airplanes, in offices”
Evacuated/reopened in the sentence: “Federal agencies in Washington which had to be evacuated today are reopening.”


Anomalies:

“Airplanes flying into buildings”
“Huge--huge structures collapsing”


This speech is obviously about the terrorist attacks on 9/11. The repetition of evil is important in this speech because what took place, the murder of innocent people was indeed evil. Strong is repeated twice in the speech. One time referring to our country and the other referring to our financial institutions. I believe strong is an important word in this speech, even though it was only mentioned twice. It is showing to the reader that despite this tragedy our nation has faced we as a country and people are strong.
There were other repetitions but not what “The Method” includes. Bush states some repetitions that begin with a word or two words but end in something else. I cannot think of the correct term but it is similar to “I have a dream” speech by MLKJR. He repeats, “I have a dream” but changes what ends the sentence. Bush does the same thing. A main one being, “For all (those who grieve), for (the children whose worlds have shattered), for all (whose sense of safety and security has been threatened).” I am not really sure why he repeats “for” and follows it with groups of people or emotions. I know that some people use this strategy to make their speech flow smoothly. This could also be classified as a strand as well because the people are connected because they are the ones we should be praying for. He says a few more of these type of first word repetitions throughout his speech. I do not know if this is relevant or not. In my opinion it is done for movement throughout the piece.
The two most significant strands I view as most important are “Secretaries, business men and women, military and federal workers, moms and dads, friends and neighbors.” and “The terrorists who committed these act and those who harbor them.” I chose “secretaries…” because it lists all the people who were affected by this action against America. The range was from military to working class to mothers and fathers and friends. Not just one group of people were affected, with Bush stranding these classifications together it shows us that every type of person was a victim. It wasn’t just the military or world leaders, but people that we might otherwise objectify. The grouping of these words are important also because it unites all of us. It didn’t matter what status, or what race, following the events of 9/11 our country tried to unite.
“The terrorists who committed these act and those who harbor them” is intriguing because Bush is saying that we are not going to make any distinction between the two. They will be treated as one. At this crisis someone involved slightly is just as guilty as the ones who were piloting the plane when it crashed into the Twin Towers and Pentagon. I believe that anyone aiding these terrorists should be considered just as guilty as the terrorist himself. I find that statement to be very powerful because it shows the seriousness of this event and how everyone, even those who harbor will be brought to justice.
The two opposite binaries were, “In airplanes, in offices”, evacuated/reopened in the sentence: “Federal agencies in Washington which had to be evacuated today are reopening.” Deaths occurred in airplanes and in offices. Usually you think of either one place or the other but not both. Its showing a huge contrast that is very much so for the events on 9/11. It is not very often that you hear of people dying in buildings and airplanes at the same exact time, same incident. This contrast also signifies how much of a surprise this was to America and even the World. As for “evacuated/reopened”, I think this is showing that our world was turned upside down, however life goes on and you can’t let an event no matter how big prevent you from moving on. And we have moved on. I see “evacuated/reopened” as kind of a metaphor for what I just stated. The world did stop for a while, but it eventually had to continue going on, in this example the government had to continue governing, and our economy needs to continue for our country to survive.
The speech also contained anomalies that when I read in the book said that not all writings would include anomalies. The two anomalies are, “Airplanes flying into buildings”, and “huge--huge structures collapsing”. These two events do not fit into everyday normal life. These could also been seen as a strand since airplanes into buildings is a unnatural disaster and structures collapsing is just as unnatural.