研究奥巴马就职演讲中的美国价值观

Acknowledgments

Thanks for giving me this chance to achieve this paper and to make a conclusion for my four years’ university education. Through writing this paper, I have acquired more knowledge than I supposed.

My sincere thanks are due to my supervisor，Ms. Zou Qiangzhen, for helping me to clarify my minds and strengthen the depth of my thinking.

Here, I also want to give my thanks to other teachers and my classmates who gave me much help. Thank you!

Abstracts

Barack Obama is the first African American to have served as a president, as well as an outstanding orator. His inaugural addresses attracted much attention both abroad and at home ever since their delivery. He talks about American conditions in three ways—individual, society and country, and expresses his views on life, freedom as well as the pursuit of happiness. His addresses are not only the expression of sentences and the embodiment of internal thought, but also the side of American culture. The study of this paper is based on Obama’s two inaugural speeches, and the paper specializes in analyzing the culture of American values that contained in these speeches. Due to the different systems of values between China and America, on the one hand, researching on Obama’s wonderful speeches can allow Chinese to have a better recognition and understanding of the concrete contents of American values. On the other hand, it contributes to a further comprehension of American society and culture and the promotion of mutual communications and exchanges.

Key Words: American values; freedom; culture

摘要

奥巴马是美国第一任非洲裔总统，也是一位杰出的演说家。他的就职演讲发表后引起了国内外广泛的关注，他从个人、社会、国家三个方面讲了美国的形势和国情，也表达了他对生存，自由的看法以及对幸福的追求。他的演讲不仅仅是言语的表达，内在思想的体现，更是美国文化的侧面体现。本文以奥巴马的两次就职演讲为研究对象，重点分析了演讲中体现出的美国价值观文化。由于中美两国不同的价值观体系，研究奥巴马总统的精彩演说一方面有助于中国人更好地认识，理解美国人具体的价值观内容。另一方面有助于中国人进一步了解美国的社会和文化，增进彼此的沟通和交流

关键词：美国价值观；自由；文化

Contents

TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1. Introduction 1

2. Values and American Values 2

2.1 The Definition of Values 2

2.2 The Definition of American Values 2

3. American Values in Inaugural Speech of Obama 3

3.1 Pursuing Freedom 3

3.2 Emphasizing Equality 5

3.3 Valuing Practice 7

3.4 Promoting Innovation 8

3.5 Advocating Fair Competition 9

3.6 Upholding Hard Work 10

4. Conclusion 11

Bibliography 12

A Study on the American Values in Inaugural Speech of Barack Obama

1. Introduction

On January 21st, 2013, Barack Obama delivered his second inaugural address to the American public as the President of the United States, and the first one was in 2009. Barack Obama is the first African American to have served as a president, as well as an outstanding orator. His inaugural addresses have attracted much attention both abroad and at home ever since its delivery. He talks about American situations in three ways—individual, society and country. The subjects of his addresses are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness about Americans. These two speeches not only have a powerful persuasion but also give a full description of American culture. So it is necessary to elaborate on Obama’s speeches. Through the consulting a large number of literatures, relevant books and searching related content on the Internet, it can be seen in recent years that a lot of scholars have explored these two speeches from different aspects and got spectacular findings. Some scholars study Obama’s inaugural speeches from the perspective of rhetoric. For example, Zheng Linlin studies the influence of Neo-Aristotelian rhetoric on Obama’s speeches (6). Some scholars study the speeches from the perspective of language characteristics. Some scholars based on the theoretical framework of functional linguistics, investigate the expression of interpersonal meaning in Obama’s inaugural addresses as well as how interpersonal meaning contained in the

source speeches texts are converted into Chinese. In terms of functional equivalence, some scholars analyze Obama’s speeches from the perspective of literature. For example, Liu Qian study the feature of literary style of Obama’s speeches (5). Some scholars discuss the cultural connotation implied in Obama’s speeches, for example, Wang Xuemei and Luo Lingzhi’s paper titled Obama’s Speech and American Culture, reveals American unique political system, traditional culture and values (80).

But, from the above analysis, it can be found that few scholars make a full analysis of American values implied in Obama’s inaugural addresses. For this reason, this paper offers a discussion of American values that contained in Obama’s inaugural addresses. With respect to the substance of American values, these are hard work, respect of freedom, attaching more importance to realities than vision, thinking highly of fair competition, enterprise and innovation, worship equality and personal struggle. For the feature of American values, we can conclude that it is widely inclusive confluence, and more or less been influenced by their religious beliefs.

America emerged from 13 British colonies at that time, but now it is a developed country on a globe scale, an internationally political and cultural force and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. So this paper probes into American values in Obama’s inaugural speeches can allow Chinese to have a better recognition and understanding of the concrete contents of American values. In addition to, it contributes to a further comprehension of American society and culture and the promotion of mutual communications and exchanges

2. Values and American Values

In order to have a deep understanding of American values embodied in Obama’s inaugural speeches, it is necessary to have a clear idea what are values and what are American values.

2.1 The Definition of Values

Values are the basic criteria that people use to measure something. They are the way of thinking, the reflection of a nation’s

traditional culture and psychological quality. The natural and social environment where people live, as well as people’s social status and living conditions, all of those determine what kind of values people

have. People living in the same environment will form similar values. So every society has its own values which are accepted by the whole public. In light of ethics, values refer to the degree of

significance of something or some behavior, with the aim of determining what is best behavior or what is best way to live. Values are characterized by objectivity, subjectivity, socially historical attribution and multiple dimensions. Values dominate people’s faith, attitude, outlook and behavior, but they are of relative stability and durability. People’s values are relatively stable in specific locations, at particular times, under given conditions. For example, people always have their own rules to comment on something. Their views will not change unless the conditions vary. Of course, with the change of their economic status, life values and world outlook, people’s values are in development (Wang 81).

Values vary from person to person. Everyone has his own values because everyone has his own life experience and social background. Personal values provide an internal reference for what is good, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable and constructive. Values generate behavior and influence the choices made by an individual. Values relate to the norms of a culture, but they are more global and abstract than norms, values are abstract concepts of what is important and worthwhile.

Values have a close relationship with cultures, culture is the sum of material civilization and spiritual civilization created by

a country or a nation during the process of social development. Values are the reflection that people have for social existence, which belong to spiritual wealth. Therefore, the formation of values is based on different cultural backgrounds. Different cultures

reflect the different values. Making a deep analysis of values is helpful for knowing more about one culture.

2.2 The Definition of American Values

America, due to its much shorter history, vast land area, multiple races and beliefs, forms its own unique values. The contents of American values include the following:

Upholding hard work refers to fight for individual and country with the aim of leading better life.

Pursuing freedom means personal freedom is protected by some laws and country’s freedom maintains by its prosperous national strength and powerful military force.

Valuing practice refers to American public think highly of realities more than words, they will make a choice according to the specific conditions.

Emphasizing equality means every citizen is treated equally whether

he is from the streets of Detroit to the hill of Appalachia or the quiet lanes of Newtown.

Promoting innovation means to improve, it can be easily seen in America, for instance, presidential election and a large amount of inventions.

Advocating fair competition means American will struggle to get what he want, they believe that competition can produce challenge and pressure, which are beneficial to their enterprise and economy.

3. American Values in Inaugural Speech of Obama

American values are best embodied in Obama’s two inaugural speeches. Unlike Chinese, America is mainly a nation of immigrants, its values owed to much its history, ideology, politic and so on. As a consequence of these factors, this research itself is enormous, abundant and complex. So the author introduces these items respectively, for the purpose of giving a full discussion of American values from Obama’s inaugural speeches. Through the overall analyses, it is easy for people to master the literal meanings to a deep degree.

3.1 Pursuing Freedom

Obama said:

Freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by his people here on earth, preserving American individual freedom ultimately requires collective action. We do not believe that in United States, freedom

is reserved for the lucky. Americans act on behalf of those who long for freedom.

From these sentences, one of American values can be found, which is pursuing freedom. In American opinion, God created freedom and everyone should work hard for it. It is necessary for them preserve freedom. It can be seen that in America freedom receives serious attention. In addition, throughout American history, it can be seen that freedom is often repeated in political speeches, such as in Kennedy’s inaugural address in 1961. Political figures’ constant

evocation of freedom in public discourse signifies the importance of freedom. Obama is a Protestant believer, and over 60% of Americans are said to be Protestant believers. The Protestants hold their

belief that man is created by God. Now, with the development of society, the religious beliefs of Americans have become stronger and stronger (Zhou 73). Every Sunday morning, all over America, people pour into the churches. Though there are few who stay away from church, half of Protestants are active church members. William Penn left for North America in 1681, where he founded a colony in today’s Pennsylvania. He also established a liberal government, argued that the settlers could enjoy religious freedom, people were not born sinful, anyone could get some land without paying. These loose immigrant policies attracted thousands of people who were tired of religious persecution all over the world. Penn’s experiential policies had great impact on American culture, American founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were influenced greatly by William Penn’s experiment.

Obama said, “The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob, founding fathers gave to America a republic, a government of the people, by the people and for the people.” These sentences show that the origin of American’s freedom can date back to 1776. As is illustrated in founding creed of America, Americans hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable right to pursue their liberty. First of all, the Americans realized their country’s freedom. In 1773, a group of American patriots launched the “Boston Tea Party”, in the First Continental Congress in 1774, the colonial leaders opposed British oppression in the colonies, they urged Americans to resist British trade. Because patriots could not put up with British colonial rules any longer, they refused to submit to the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain. They were eager to set up their own government that secures their rights. There was a great surge of patriotic feeling among members of American colonial society (Zhang 10). In their opinion, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed people. So American Revolution began in April 1775, for the purpose of pursuing sheer freedom. The War of Independence came to an end in 1781 with the

victory of North Americans. The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783 and Britain had to recognize the independence of the United States. North Americans gained freedom in politics, a new Constitution of the United States was created.

The theory of politics and a guiding tenet of the American Revolution derive from John Locke, an English philosopher in the 17th century, known as the “Father of Liberalism.” He explained his position as follows:

whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these

ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its power in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. (qtd. in Wang and Zhu 42).

These principles imply that Americans think highly of citizen’s freedom, so they will make effort to sustain their freedom. Each time Americans gather to inaugurate a president mean that they bear witness to the enduring strength of their Constitution. Bill of Rights guarantees freedom and individual rights and bans interference with lives of individuals by the government.

Obama said, “we know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work.” This sentence means personal freedom is emphasized in America. Freedom signifies citizenship as measured by civil and political rights for voters, that is to say, the ability to make one’s own decisions. Personal freedom is also related to the background that their ancestors immigrated to new continents, in search of new hunting grounds or refuge from pursuing enemies. Their spirit of initiative partly contributes to the American’s distinct personal freedom. In American’s mind, personal freedom is their divine right, when they are young, they should have the freedom of receiving education. They have the freedom of voting when their ages are proper enough by the laws. As for the affairs of state, and public affairs, they should be allowed to give their opinions freely, namely free speech. As for personal prospects, they should have the rights to change their jobs and whether or not choose a job. In addition, they should have the right to choose a spouse, religious belief, and decide where they want to settle down. American

feel free to disagree with each other at any time, that kind of freedom is even a source of pride for many.

However, American was disciplined that they should respect other’s freedom and right from a young age, it means that to some extent restrict own freedom. Due to preventing the society from being disorders and keeping in order is crucial to the development of society, hence individual freedom is limited and controlled to a certain degree. Its standard is anyone could not hinder other’s freedom when enjoy own freedom. Laws, regulations and rules stand on behalf of the minority’s purpose and will in whole society, and it must be adhered and stuck to in appropriate scope once it has gained legal authority.

Unluckily, in history, a unique American phenomenon was that Negroes were bought to be as slaves, so their freedom was destroyed cruelly. On the one hand, the English and other Europeans went to North America in search of freedom. But on the other hand, these very white people who were seeking and fighting for their own freedom deprived black Africans of their freedom. George Washington was a great

fighter for American freedom, and Thomas Jefferson was a chief author of the Declaration of Independence, and yet both of them were slave owners, each with over 200 black slaves.

3.2 Emphasizing Equality

Obama said, “the God give promise that all men are equal and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. For we, the people, understand that a country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.” From the word “every” we can learn that person has equal opportunity generally in America. It can be seen that in America all people’s equality were emphasized. Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American philosopher, said that how to think, what kind of life. Their modes of thinking have a significant influence on their life. As American founding documents illustrated, all men are created equal, Obama also repeated this sentence in the speech. There are some examples to illustrate this value.

The earlier colonists of America mostly came from middle class and low class. They didn’t tend to distinguish people’s class strictly, though the influence of European hereditary tradition and rank view still remained in society, the American gradually paid little

attention to it. Besides, American continents was newly opened up, abundant natural resources provided the diligent worker with the prosperity of future life, it promoted the concept to be equal to a higher degree. Nonetheless, every general statement about life in the United States could be contradicted by exceptions, often several exceptions, just like a saying goes, every silver lining has its cloud.

In the United States, the blacks and American Indians and other

racial groups are still suffering from racial discrimination and injustice. Americans are mainly a nation of immigrants, so it is described as a “Melting Pot”. The citizens or their ancestors immigrated from many parts of the globe-some as refugees from

religious political persecution, some as adventurers from the Old World seeking a better life, some fleeing a hopeless economic

situation or natural disaster, some wanting greater educational opportunities, and some as captives brought to America against their own will to be sold into slavery. Though people all share a common America culture, the nation contains many racial and ethnic subcultures with their own distinctive characteristics. These differences might seem trivial or irrelevant to outside observers,

but they have contributed to racial conflicts that have been a persistent social problems to American society. There are various racial discrimination in America though racial segregation is against the law. American society is a stratified one, in which power, wealth, and prestige are unequally distributed among the population. This inequality is not simply a matter of distinctions between gender and social classes; it tends to follow racial and ethnic lines as well, with the result that class divisions often parallel racial divisions. The first male settlers from “Anglo-Saxon” northwestern Europe quickly took control of economic assets and political power in the United States, and they have maintained this control, to a greater or lesser degree. Ever since, constant waves of immigrants from other parts of Europe and elsewhere in the world had to struggle long and hard to become assimilated into the mainstream of American life. Some people notably those whose ethnic or racial characteristics differ most markedly from those of the dominant groups-have been excluded by formal and informal barriers from full participation in American life. The result of this discrimination has been a severe and continuing

racial tension in the United States, and it has erupted into outright violence from time to time. Especially since the civil rights demonstrations, ghetto riots, and other unrest in the 1960s, race and ethnic relations have been a major preoccupation of social scientists, politicians and the general public. Taking Obama’s words as an example, about 100 years ago in America, women and the black could

not vote. Now the country try to compensate blacks for what they have suffered, so the importance of equality in America is increasing day by day (Shi 66).

3.3 Valuing Practice

Obama said:

they celebrate initiative and enterprise, they possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and energy, diversity and openness, an endless capacity for risk and a

gift for reinvention. For history tells us that while truths may be self-evident, they will never been self-executing. They continue to bridge the meanings of these words with the realities of our time. From these sentences, it can be seen that Americans think highly of practice rather than words. Words and promises, no matter how

visionary they sound, they can only have a little meaning to

realities. America has carried on because the people have remained faithful to the ideals of their forebears, and true to their founding documents. When Americans judge things, mostly make their choice according to realities. “Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many.”Obama exemplifies American’s situation with above facts. It is clear that realities are used to indicate American’s real situation.

If Americans prepare to engage in a career, first, they will take

into consideration whether or not the career can be done

well, whether or not it is worth doing, whether or not it is beneficial to them. They also will size up all kinds of possibilities without any taboos, both of disadvantages and advantages are considered. In term of this perception, they will pay more attention

to efficiency, economy, and don’t waste money and time on

insignificant things when they deal with things. The scheme and final report are required to be simple as possibly as they can, superfluous rules and formalities are sharply decreased consequently. This value exists in many ways of American life. They value scientific

technology, new changes. They are eager to explore and master any unknown questions, also show that they have bigger interest in realities. This value has an enormous influence on the mode of American life, gaining a qualification in university in order to have a better career, a higher salary and social rank. When there are many choices to choose a favourite job, where they can get higher salary and good treatment is their standard. Factory, enterprise and other institutions are thinking over and seeking a more efficient way to work all the time. The ways to improve work, increase efficiency,

save money and time all will be saluted. Value practices, that is to say, all that they take into consideration is to proceed in the light of the need of specific conditions, not to stick to trifles, tenets and customs stiffly.

For instance, in order to attract more young people go to church on Sunday morning, not only the time of preaching is lessened, but also the contents are approached to realities. Besides, new anthems are added with comparative modern rhythm and melody, it is not what it used to be totally. It is said that the concept of valuing practice partly comes from frontier tradition of America, due to facing the hardship and danger when pioneers reclaimed border area, pioneers

look down upon the people who think nothing of efficiency and divorce from realities (Hu W.Z. 180). The principles which general Americans would like to adhere are that it is unnecessary to speak unrealistic words, polite formulas, they would like to accept the things as it really is. As a result, when there are numerous fallen flowers and leaves in the yard, they should pay the young relatives if they want young relatives to help them clean the yard. It is not strange that the sixty people want to learn new knowledge, and have classes in university.

3.4 Promoting Innovation

Obama said:

there is new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools

to be built. Outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time, and we must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries--we must claim its

This sentence indicates that Obama call for Americans to innovate. Isaac Asimov was an American writer, he ever said: “innovation is the vitality of science building.” This motto corresponds to Obama’s meaning. That fidelity to American’s founding principles requires new responses to new challenges, new responses means do something innovative. There are many great innovations in America, which can testify the importance of innovation. Obama is proud of these innovations, he says that our workers are productive, our minds are inventive.

Benjamin Franklin invented lighting rod in 1752; Samuel Morse was the first person to create a telegraph with only one wire, Morse’s invention made it possible to quickly communicate with people far away. Alexander Bell was credited with patenting the first practical telephone in 1876. Thomas Edison developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the long-lasting, practical electric light bulb, and a system of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, business and factories, that really a crucial development in the modern industrialized world. Henry Ford was the sponsor of the development of assembly line technique of mass production, he converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into practical conveyance that would profoundly impact the landscape of the 20th century. In 1969, Neil Armstrong descended to the lunar surface, this is the first manned moon landing mission in the world. In 1975, Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft together, marking the start of era for of human information. Gates received the 2010 Bower Award for Business Leadership from The Franklin Institute for his achievements at Microsoft and his philanthropic work, in 2006, Gates received the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award from The Tech Awards. In 2000, John Craig Venter and Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Public Genome Project made the announcement of the mapping of the human genome. It means that open a new window for human self-cognition. They thus shared an award for “Biography of the Year”from Arts & Entertainment Network.

America was the source of many different inventions from computers to zippers. The development of America from a crude, agriculture country in the 19th century to the modern, high technology and consequently highly productive world power in the 21th century shows that American

values creation. In a word, these outstanding innovations and

novelties contributed to much the development of the world, it was in American that these new things came into being. In addition to scientific creation, American also plays an important role in popular culture, education, economy and other industries.

3.5 Advocating Fair Competition

. Obama said that we discovered that a free market only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play. Fair competition is their national image to some extent. There are various

competitions in America, from elementary classroom to workplace, from running a company to electing president, fair competition can be

easily seen. For instance, students’ academic records are required

to surpass other students only in this way can the higher get scholarship or else encouragements. The ordinary office workers are required to do better than their colleagues, though their work is typewriting or to file documents, under this condition, they can get

a increased salary or promotion. Commodities are the same as this case, only their lower price with good qualities can sell well among many competitors. If ignored the core of competition, man and things are all likely to be eliminated. Though the competition is tough, the competent is still filled with energy. Taking Ford as an example, American automobile is famous in the world, Ford Motor Company is

the main force in American automobile industry, and it is the world’

s fifth largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sales.

Obama says that the market can spin out of control without a watchful eye, the success of our economy depend on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart. In order to avoid completion that lead to outright conflicts, most of Americans realized that competition activities should be attached some necessary regulations

in law. Thus we can see the importance of fair competition. To be successful is the direct aim in competition, of course, it is important. However, the same as important is that succeed equally. That is to say, when prepare to be successful, competitors need to work hard with the relative laws and regulations permission, rather than rely on other helps. American will pay more attention to winners, while the losers will not are taken into considerations. Relatively, winners often account for a few parts, losers account for a large part, so this competition may lead to some social problems.

will be long and sometimes difficult, but America cannot resist this

ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America. These sentences are not only the genuine calls of Obama to American, but also the vivid descriptions of the spirit of hard work. Thomas the individual must fight for his identity Jefferson was the third president of the America, put hardworking famers this way: cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens, they are most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its interests by the most lasting bonds. According to Obama, American ancestors packed up their few possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. These people struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw.

In history, a group of English thought that the Church of England was too catholic and wanted to “purify” the church, as a consequence the name “puritans”. They believed that God was incomprehensible to man, and the power of god was all-knowing, yet hidden and unknown to man(Wu 4). Puritans were convinced that human beings were predestined by God before they were born. Some were God’s chosen people while others were predestined to be damned to hell. Therefore no good works could save anyone, and nobody knew if he or she was God’s elect. Was there any evidence for Puritans to show that some people were God’s chosen people? Puritans believed that everyone had a calling, which was given by God. The success of one’s work or the prosperity in his calling was the sign of being God’s elect. Therefore, everyone must work word and invest for more business. Working hard and living a moral life were their doctrines. How could Puritans find God’s will and establish a direct contact with God? They concluded that the Bible was the authority of their doctrine. So every Puritan must read the Bible in order to find God’s will and search for one’s individual contact with God. To be able to read the Bible and

understand God’s will, education was essential for Puritans. Such Puritan beliefs were heretical to the Church of England, so they were cruelly persecuted. Some puritans thought that England was too corrupted and hopeless and decided to break free from Church of England.

Through a series of sufferings and far distance migrations, in 1620, some Puritans took the ship Mayflower and left for North America. They settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Puritanism in New England changed gradually due to the frontier environment and the mobility of the population. As time went by, the bulk of the new generations no longer adhered to the orthodox Puritanism. Many moved to the west and other parts of the United States. Puritans are no longer in existence now. But their legacies are still felt in American society and culture. For example, puritans argued that everyone should work hard, this belief established American values--a strain of hard work to realize one’s dreams. Hard work is a rich cultural heritage to current Americans, this spirit was described more vividly in Obama’s address. As citizens, we have the strength to set this country’s path, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time--not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, Americans not only have the strength and ability is necessary to answer the call of their history. In order to carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom, it is necessary to transform the spirit of hard work into practice.

4. Conclusion

Obama is the 44th American president. His inaugural speeches are so eloquent that they attract much attention both abroad and at home ever since their delivery. According to these two inaugural speeches, this paper offers a discussion about American values from the perspective of culture. Then, the author elaborates on hard work, equality, freedom, fair competition, innovation and pragmatism. Through study, the author can find: men are equal before God and Americans are confident with their abilities to deal with new changes in the world. This study is helpful to understand the contents of Obama’s speeches and American culture more profoundly. It is also helpful to understand the theory of values, especially American’s

unique system of values. Besides, this study contributes to the recognition of differences between Chinese and American culture.

Except for some values which are mentioned above, other values such

as advocating cooperation, thinking highly of personal effort and honesty are also contained in Obama’s inaugural speeches. These values need probing into by following writers. In the meanwhile, this paper only elaborates on American values that are contained in Obama’s inaugural speeches, failing to probe into American values

throughout American successive president’s inaugural speeches. Besides, values have relative stability and it will change with

social progress. So the values which are remained basically in American society should be emphasized and the values which emerged newly also should be emphasized. That is, American values should be regarded with dynamic way. Just as Obama says, “ for the world has changed, and we must change with it.”

In conclusion, as mentioned in Obama’s address, some basic values

still remain in the American society, they contributed much to the unique American culture. Americans are proud of their ancient heritage.

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