Skidmore College Creative Matter English Honors Theses English 2018 “Yes We Did”: Barack Obama, Narrating Change, and Redefining America Allison Trunkey Skidmore College,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/eng_stu_schol Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Trunkey, Allison, "“Yes We Did”: Barack Obama, Narrating Change, and Redefining America" (2018). English Honors Theses. 9. https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/eng_stu_schol/9 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Creative Matter. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Creative Matter. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Trunkey 1 Allison Trunkey English Dept. Senior Thesis 3 May 2018 “Yes We Did”: Barack Obama, Narrating Change, and Redefining America Introduction: An Ethos of Change, Elevating Citizenship, and the “Bully Pulpit” During his eight years in office, Barack Obama used his presidency as a platform to highlight the voices and experiences of ordinary Americans. His refrain was often that, “in a democracy, the most important office is the office of citizen.”1 Illustrating this belief, his speeches were littered with references to Americans whose stories exemplified whatever moral vanguard Obama was then attempting to advocate. He identified these citizens as part of both the historical record and the contemporary moment: slaves and abolitionists, coal miners and parents, servicemen and corporate leaders of industry. They were not always names known to us, though Obama does favor stories of the Founding Fathers and civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.