Throughout this speech, John F. Kennedy makes his stance on the potential of space travel clear. He believes that it is the next evolutionary step for humanity and that it should and would be pioneered by America. However, this alone is not how Kennedy was able to convince audiences of his stance. Using rhetorical appeals, inductive reasoning, and analogy, he was able to make a solid argument for the importance of Space travel.
Rhetorical appeals are the various techniques that can help persuade an audience in favor of one argument or another. Two of these appeals used in particular, are logos: the appeal to logic, and pathos: the appeal to emotion. Kennedy's speech made use of both appeals by stating "...no nation that expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space." This statement provided a logical line of thinking for America's public that could also help instill a sense of nationalism within them. While these appeals strengthened this speech on their own, they alone are not what made it work. There are
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Inductive reasoning, much like logos, is able to appeal to an audience's sense of logic by using pieces of information to come to a reasonable conclusion. Kennedy puts this into practice several times in the speech, with one point being mentioned in the previous paragraph. Additionally, he uses it in the third and fourth paragraphs to acknowledge the fears that the public may have about the endeavor and why that may be. Using this technique, he also rebukes this notion, explaining that history has shown that humanity will inevitably venture onward into space, with or without the United States. Laying out what would happen if America refused the call to space would serve to further motivate the citizens to value and support space travel. Besides this choice, however, there is still one more topic that has yet to be covered in this