Rhetorical Analysis Of John F Kennedy's Inaugural Address

John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered his speech in front of thousands of people of all different races and all different social class. In his inaugural address, John F. Kennedy talks about his goals during his term in office. Using literary devices such as metaphors he sucks his audience into his speech making them put their whole mind into it. He uses a different way of writing, apart from many, to create emphasis on each point and goal that he has. His diction throughout his speech depicts his youthfulness but also show his knowledge that makes him worthy of becoming one of the many presidents who lead their people to harmony. While the speech’s respectful eloquence is appropriate for the occasion of an inauguration, its youthful energy and

Towards the beginning of the speech there is a one sentence paragraph that says “ This much we pledge-and more (par 6)” but then the next has three. Kennedy uses these short paragraphs containing one or a few sentences to emphasize the points made in it by pausing after each paragraph. Through long pauses in some of his short paragraphs the audience are able to have that time to think and reflect on the point that was made rather than having a long paragraph making the audience not think but instead try to keep up on what is being said. When giving his inaugural address, John F. Kennedy used literary devices to draw the audience and make them pay close attention. One of these devices incorporated in his speech are metaphors. An example of a metaphor used is “...before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction (par 12)”. Kennedy wanted the reader to pay close attention what he was saying and the points that he was making. By using a metaphor the audience would stop and think about what the sentence and metaphor meant rather than listening to his speech and not thinking about what was being said. This metaphor that Kennedy uses can be considered as fresh. It symbolizes Kennedy’s new energy by introducing new things such as the metaphor rather using one that has been repeated thousands of