Article published In: Metaphor and the Social World
Vol. 8:2 (2018) ► pp.247–266
Rhetorical confinement, contrasting metaphors, and cultural polarities
“Yes we can” meets “Carnage in the cities”
Published online: 23 October 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.17014.rit
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.17014.rit
Abstract
In this study we contrast metaphors and metaphorical stories in President Trump, D. (2017). inaugural address [URL] inaugural address with those of former President Barack Obama’s first inaugural address. We draw on the concept of ‘rhetorical confinement’ (Patterson, R. E. (2011). The ‘Beer Summit’ and what’s brewing: Narratives, networks, and metaphors as rhetorical confinement in the Age of Obama. Communication Studies, 621, 439–455. ) to show how the contrasting life trajectories of the two leaders are reflected in the contrasting themes and tone established by their metaphorical language. We argue that Obama’s rhetorical tone, including his use of metaphors, was at least in part a response to the compound constraints of race and class. In contrast, Trump’s rhetorical tone and use of metaphors reflects and reinforces his image as a political outsider, as a challenge to the constraints of ordinary political discourse. The contrast between the rhetorically confined politeness of Obama’s discourse (lampooned as ‘political correctness’ by many of his opponents) and the unconstrained crudeness of Trump’s discourse (lauded as ‘telling it like it is’) apparently legitimates the open expression of previously suppressed resentments and encourages an extreme rhetoric that is symptomatic of, and may contribute to, the growing polarization in American political discourse.
Keywords: metaphor, rhetorical confinement, race, class, Obama, Trump, political polarization, political communication
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Background
- 1.2Contrasting lives, contrasting styles
- 1.3The rhetorical confinement of President Obama
- 2.Method
- 3.Obama’s first inaugural address (2009)
- 4.The Trump inaugural address
- 4.1“Transferring power”
- 4.2“Their victories have not been your victories”
- 4.3“Forgotten no longer”
- 4.4“And now we are looking only to the future”
- 4.5“Now arrives the hour of action”
- 5.Comparisons
- 6.Conclusions
- Notes
References
References (26)
Auchenbach, J. (2008). Salad spinning. The Washington Post, Aug. 23. [URL] › Arts & Living
Bailey, I. J., (2016). Trump’s not racist, but he is a selective bigot. Charlotte Observer, Mar. 03. [URL]
Baker, P., & Bromwich, J. E. (2017). With Civil War remark, a president who doesn’t go by the (history) book. New York Times on-line, May 2. [URL]
Blow, Charles. (2017). Trump’s Obama obsession. New York Times on-line, Jun. 29. [URL]
Chira, S. (2017). Who likes Trump’s tweets and why. New York Times on-line, Jun. 30. [URL]
Dorst, A. G., & Kaal, A. A. (2012). Metaphor in discourse: Beyond the boundaries of MIP. In F. MacArthur, J. L. Oncins-Martínez, M. Sánchez-García, & A. M. Piquer-Píriz (Eds.), Metaphor in use: Context, culture, and communication (pp. 51–68). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Douthat, R. (2017). Who Are We? New York Times, Feb. 4. [URL]
Economist (2017). American politics: Donald Trump’s Washington is paralysed. And the man in the Oval Office is making a bad situation worse. (Editorial.) The Economist, Jul. 1.
Gibbs, R. W. Jr. (2006). Metaphor interpretation as embodied simulation. Mind and Language, 211, 434–458.
Goodman, M. (2016). Make no mistake—Donald Trump’s victory represents a racist ‘whitelash.’ New Statesman, Nov. 9. [URL].
Kerner, J., & Fields, D. (1936). Pick yourself up. Santa Monica, CA: Universal Music Publishing Group.
Levy, G. (2016). Harry Reid: Trump’s election has emboldened ‘hate,’ ‘bigotry’. US News, Nov. 11. [URL]
Linkins, J. (2009; updated May 25, 2011). Hannity attacks Obama for putting mustard on his burger. Huffington Post, MEDIA, Jul. 6. [URL].
Obama, B. (2009). First presidential inaugural address, “What is required: The price and the promise of citizenship.” [URL]
Patterson, R. E. (2011). The ‘Beer Summit’ and what’s brewing: Narratives, networks, and metaphors as rhetorical confinement in the Age of Obama. Communication Studies, 621, 439–455.
Ritchie, L. D. (2010). “
Everybody goes down:” Metaphors, stories, and simulations in conversations. Metaphor and Symbol, 251, 123–143.
(2017). Story metaphors: Narratives and figurative language in discourse. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ritchie, L. D., & Cameron, L. (2014). Open hearts or smoke and mirrors: Metaphorical framing and frame conflicts in a public meeting. Metaphor and Symbol, 291, 204–223.
Ritchie, L. D., & Zhu, M. (2015). “Nixon stonewalled the investigation”: Potential contributions of grammatical metaphor to conceptual metaphor theory and analysis. Metaphor and Symbol, 301, 118–136.
Sargent, G. (2016). The American people agree with Clinton: Trump is a bigot. This new poll confirms it. The Washington Post, Sept. 12. [URL]
Stohr, K. (2017). THE STONE: Our new age of contempt. New York Times on-line, Jan. 23. [URL]
Trump, D. (2017). inaugural address [URL]
(2016). Transcript: Donald Trump’s taped comments about women. New York Times, Oct. 8. (The “Access Hollywood” tapes). [URL]
Veblen, T. (1973). The theory of the leisure class. With an introduction by John Kenneth Galbraith. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Will, G. F. (2017). A most dreadful inaugural address. The Washington Post, Jan. 20. [URL]
Cited by (7)
Cited by seven other publications
Kula, Sultan Selen
Shakoury, Kayvan & Frank Boers
2024. Metaphors for multiculturalism in the Canadian context. Metaphor and the Social World 14:2 ► pp. 304 ff.
Shakoury, Kayvan & Frank Boers
Ritchie, L. David
Atkins, Scott, Ashley Mote, Kimberly Gonzalez & Krystal Alexander
Ritchie, David
Smith, Graham
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.