How do the composers of the texts you have studied use distinctive voices to reveal important ideas?

The use of context and language create a distinctive voice that may be mirrored within texts created by influential individuals to reveal important ideas and have lasting effects that challenge audiences. The augural address of American presidents and the authors of publicly shared works of poetry share this ability of revealing important ideas and impacting audiences equally. Barack Obama (2013) and JFK (1961) address their respective nations as the former informs of the possibility of equality for all and the latter challenges society to stand in unity against Communism. This is continued with the moving poem of 'The Not-so-good Earth' (1973) as poet Bruce Dawe and his satirically distinctive voice informs of how society has been desensitised by TV with the blurring of lines between news and entertainment. These texts have become timeless examples of such distinctive voices as they all reveal important ideas that challenge society.

The second inaugural address of Barack Obama (2013) reveals an optimistically distinctive voice that challenges society to develop a general consensus of equality for all. Obama's personally tied inclusive language illustrates this through addressing the negative political and social issues that exist. This targeted aim on equality is a by-product of the common nature of a second presidential term of concentrating on personally driven issues. The continued anaphora of 'Our journey is not complete' which is repeated throughout the address before the unabbreviated listing of issues is used to proclaim how he is extremely aware and how he plans to change things. Through this, he recognises the issues with additions to how his personal context of being born with a minority group has formed his understanding and his desire for the equality of all. He then adds using his hallmark language device of tricolon of 'life, love and the pursuit of happiness' that the existence of true equality may bring about the aspirations of all. The inclusive nature of the anaphora used is mirrored within the strong use of inclusive repetition whereby Obama ties together his nation to combat these issues together and subsequently illustrates his believe in it's completion only being possible through the combined effort of all. Obama's inclusive language continues to unfold throughout his address as he continues to not link back to his accomplishments but rather to the nation's accomplishments to support that aspect of working together and its necessity in his mission. Nearing the end of his address, the allegorical use of a story of a young girl from a marginalized background and the telling of her possible successful life with the equally she experiences illustrates the positive ramifications that may come from his vision. This presents how his distinctive voice shapes meaning to his audience through his ability to show them a vision for the future. In this way, it is clear that Obama's personal and inclusive voice successfully strives to unite the people of his nation to transcend into a society where every citizen is truly equal. Obama's inaugural address combines his personal context, knowledge of issues and inclusive rhetoric to inspire the people of his nation to take action and, through working together, live his dream, the dream. The distinctive, charismatic and authoritative voice of JFK, which is mirrored within his Inaugural Address (1957), carries forth the notion that America with stand strong in unity, for the defence of common American values against the threat of Communism. Through recognising that he was elected by only half of his country, his address is a call to arms for all that aims to bind the country together. His strong use of inclusive first-person language helps to illustrate the antithesis, religious allusion and juxtaposition that is found throughout. In keeping with his challenging message, the antithesis of 'ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country' is successful in challenging society to act and act together. Whilst recognising his politically even split of a nation, JFK relays his distinctive voice through biblical allusion as the society of the time had a strong consensus of belief in religion. This is represented through the scattering of Christian Holy scripture throughout his address, including the scripture of Romans 12:12 'Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation' puts forward this religious expression to bring his nation together. This notion is reflected again in the juxtaposition of 'United there is little we cannot do...Divided there is little we can do.' JFK binds together both sides of the political spectrum by using his authoritative voice to express and challenge society of the overarching issue that faces both sides, the loss of American values in the face of Communism and the international community. He expresses this through rhetoric devices to his speech memorable meaning which is used by the audience.

The poem of `The not-so-good Earth' (1973) by Bruce Dawe reveals a distinctive voice that challenges society by illustrating how the (newly introduced) TV has desensitised global issues. His satirical methods reveals the blurred lines between reality and entertainment that are created by TV. The metaphor of 'Uncle Billy's eyesight's going fast' is created to represent the larger societies issue of developing a superficial view on global issues. This idea is continued within the parenthesis which illustrates and explains how Uncle Billy's family is more concerned with the full orchestra of a Craven A advertisement then the break of silence which covers the death of a Chinese Grandma. This section is placed to highlight how the TV has transformed the ideals of the public through its creative use of sound, further taking the public under a superficial understanding of global issues as it moves to make the situation one of entertainment and not reality. The poem then abruptly ends with an ellipsis of 'wiping out 600 million Chinese without a trace...' This truthful and clear sentence of explaining the eastern world issues thus mirrors the TVs hallmark use of a cliffhanger prior to an ad break. The strong mimicking of entertainment TV norms has been used in this way to develop the image of blurring lines between entertainment and reality. In summary, Dawe challenges his audience to keep their emotive senses on world issues by ignoring the dehumanisation produced through the TV.

In summary, the inaugural addresses of US presidents, JFK and Obama and the poetic works of Bruce Dawe are successful in bringing to light important ideas as they profoundly challenge the society of there times. The distinctive voices that are created within each text through the use of context and language to do so. As such, these texts have become timeless examples of distinctive voices as they all reveal important ideas that challenge society.

~ Andrew Harvey 2007