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John F Kennedy Inaugural Address Rhetorical Analysis

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John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address demonstrates great uses of many different rhetorical strategies to make his address very informal and effective to the American people. Kennedy’s purpose of this text was to get his goals across to the American people for his presidency and unite the people to help achieve a common goal. President John F. Kennedy starts his speech by listing former Presidents and other political members and finishes with fellow citizens. This implies his respect for his job and the respect he has for the American citizens. The people he list have different political views which shows how he can work with people to accomplish goals no matter what party they are in. This gives the American people a since of confidence …show more content…

After a few more paragraphs the people warmed up to Kennedy and really supports what he does. Near the end of the speech he uses a hortative sentence that stuck with the American people ever since. He said “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country,” This is a quote that gets Americans excited 50 years after he said it. Kennedy was very smart in the wording of this quote, he used pathos by getting them passionate about America, he used a hortative sentence which urged the America people to help their country become prosperous. He also used ethos by appealing to their emotion, after a well written speech about his goals he used this quote to get the American people working and helping America become a flourishing country. In the very next sentence he says, “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man,” because Kenned knows his audience he said this to establish respect for other countries and appeal to their ethos and make them want to comply to what America says so the whole world can be happy and prosperous. In conclusion President John F. Kennedy used many different rhetorical strategies to get his point across in a speech that was shorter than most Presidents Inaugural Address’s. This shows that Kennedy knew what he was doing during the

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