Emiliano Joyner

ENC1102

9/3/22

Munsell

Word Count: 399

Genre Analysis of an Open Letter

On January 8th, 2011, a tragedy happened in Tucson, Arizona. A total of 19 people were

shot with six passing by the gunman Jared Lee Loughner. The open letter penned by Michelle

Obama was meant to address the people of America and attempted to encourage everyone to stay

strong in the trying times and persevere. The thesis of this letter would be that we can take this

tragic incident and learn from it and come out stronger and better than before.

The audience addressed in the letter is the parents of America. Although the parents are

the ones specifically addressed it would seem that this letter targets and applies to all citizens of

the United States. Michelle is appealing to the audience by connecting us to the victims of this

tragedy and attempting to unite us. She uses the familial bonds of the victims and relates that to

every American and implies that we are the same.

Michelle is writing this letter to try and lift the spirits and morale of America. Often when

tragedies of this scale occur it can affect the entire country as a whole, all the way to the

individual citizen. The outcome that Michelle is calling for is a positive one, an outcome where

we come out stronger than before.

 Michelle is confident and sure in this letter she is extremely convincing and sure that we

can do and be better. Michelle uses self-references throughout the letter as she is a parent and

believes this letter and idea applies to her to. She talks of how it affects her and her family and

how they are dealing with the situation and learning from it. This letter has more of an informal

tone as Michelle chose to step away from her status and position and talk to us as people and

fellow citizens.

I found the argument presented by Michelle to be truly impactful. We cannot change the

past or bring back those that have fallen. What we can do is correct the mistake and try our best

to learn from it and improve ourselves. That is exactly what Michelle is suggesting we do in this

open letter. She addresses the parents of America and tells them we must respond proactively

and positively and to teach our children to do the same. In that aspect Michelle excellently

achieved her goal when writing this open letter.