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Rhetorical Analysis Of John F Kennedy's Inaugural Address

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An inaugural address is a speech classically given to begin a leader's presidency. Throughout modern presidencies, these speeches have had many similarities from the gravitas they're spoken with to their honorable acknowledgment of America's history. Though these speeches have many similarities, the individuality within the president's personalities and their circumstances dictate the purposes behind their speeches. John F. Kennedy's speech was forged by the weight of war and a divided nation. The turbulence in the country was in part due to his electoral victory. Kennedy aimed to garner the trust of those yet to support him. He manages to win needed favor through different rhetorical strategies while also instilling enough trust to persuade them towards his ideas. This great leader had an idea of how to mend his turbulent country. He planned to unite America towards civil duty through inspiration and hope. With this plan in mind, he called on his fellow Americans everywhere "to assure the survival and success of liberty." …show more content…

Kennedy understood his nation was divided. From the fractures of war to the disarray his very election caused. The closeness of his victory ensured he had half a nation to win over. Therefore, before he could present his vision for this nation he had to make assurances to his audience. How could he persuade his audience to place their trust in him and his ideas? With that question in mind, he begins his speech using parallelism. He tells his audience they should think of his nomination as a symbol of freedom instead of a victory, "..symbolizing an end as well as a beginning — signifying renewal as well as change." In doing this he juxtaposes renewal with change, assuring those in his audience that are reluctant to change, in an almost appealing way. This leaves the audience ready to place their trust in him and open to

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In a time where many countries of the world were unsettled and feared another atomic bomb explosion, President John F. Kennedy was sworn into office on January 20, 1961 on a cold winter afternoon. He then proceeded to give an inaugural address that would last through the ages and inspire people not only in America, but also people around the world to unite together and achieve peace. His speech was eloquent and smooth, because of his use of many rhetorical strategies. He uses diction, appeals, parallelism and other literary devices all throughout the speech. President Kennedy wise use of diction greatly helped him appeal to the audiences.

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1. The audience and purpose of the speech JFK's inaugural address considers one of the most successful speeches in our history. President JFK addressed his speech to the American government, American citizens, people all over the world and especially the USSR government and its citizens. The president speech was in 1961 during the Cold War. JFK's speech included some highly value purposes: - Express United State as an invincible superpower - Express the willingness to Fight against enemies and achieve freedom and liberty all over the world.

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John F. Kennedy in his speech, the Inaugural Address, explains his dreams and plans for the United States as he attempts to unite the citizens. Kennedy supports his ideas on the future of the country and conveys his message by using rhetorical appeals such as ethos, pathos and logos, good structure and figurative language. Kennedy’s purpose in this speech is to persuade and inspire citizens to unite and strive to keep America a peaceful and stable place to be. While the speech’s respectful eloquence is appropriate for the occasion of an inauguration, its youthful energy and look to future make it distinctly John F. Kennedy’s.

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In the speech made by John F Kennedy in Jan 20th 1961, he announced his presidency and addressed his agenda for the future of America, and more over, of the world -- the pursuit of peace and liberty inside and outside America. His audiences were his fellow citizens who were Americans and those around the globe, and he surely implied his points powerfully by arguing with a serious tone and meaningful yet powerful diction. The first aspect that makes the speech effective and incisive is the tone of it -- lofty and formal. For example: “Let every nation know...

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(Week 8, Doc. 25) Then he added later that American’s must “ask what you can do for your country, not what your country can do for you”. (Week 8, Doc. 25) He believed by working together, we could begin to solve the Nations social problems. Kennedy was trying to show American’s that it’s necessary to fight for what’s fair in society, and to help others help themselves in order to prosper. The public felt Kennedy, with his idealism and vigor, would be a good fit for Presidential leadership, and would be effective in reducing the many of America’s domestic problems. After failing to keep some of his campaign promises such as, expanding the welfare state, and health care programs, he acted, after much pressure from civil right activists and pushed Congress by calling for a comprehensive Civil Rights bill.

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In his speech Kennedy uses different rhetorical devices to unify the citizens of both the United States and the world. Kennedy was giving this speech after winning by a very small margin of votes so he was trying to unite the people of the United States and show he was the correct choice for the president. This speech was given during the Cold War so he was trying to connect the people around the whole world and establish peace. Kennedy was able to unify the people and try to establish peace while at the same time making himself seem like a very competent leader. In his speech Kennedy tries to build his credibility as a personable leader by creating ethos.

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The emotional appeal of hope, that emulates from the quest towards peace, will unlock roads that lead to new destinations. The road will not be easy, but in this inaugural address. Kennedy really used the emotional and ethical appeals to drive his ambitions to the hearts of every person reading, or listening, that now is the time to “let us go forth” (Kennedy 806) and begin anew in this conquest for a better tomorrow. He integrated the perfect tone for each circumstance that he brought up in his speech. Kennedy appropriately offered both a cause and effect for what could have been a very serious problem, but showed a solution to overcoming even this obstacle.

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The inaugural address of the president is the first time that the candidate that the American people elected speaks with the influence and authority of the president. Because of this, the address can be extremely influential to both the nation, their term, and the influence of the president in office. Therefore, the inaugural address is very important and needs to be clear and powerful. Because of the importance of this address, using proper rhetoric is vital to the success of the speech. It is only through the balance of logic, emotion, and reputation that the speech properly put forth its message.

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John F. Kennedy was a wild card, so to speak. He was young, an Irish Catholic, and had only captured presidential victory by a minimal margin. However, he had gained the power to make change. Unity was the primary goal of his campaign and time in office. The Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961, Inside Kennedy’s Inauguration, 50 years on, and Inauguration of John F. Kennedy all were documented to preserve JFK’s legacy, or his move towards unity in a divided country.

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Although this may not be an obvious reason for including this in his speech, it certainly serves the purpose of uniting the people and stirring their emotions toward

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Kennedy wisely sticks to using pathos throughout his entire speech, rather than relying on his then-minimal ethos or allowing his stirring speech to become bogged down by logos represented by the dull facts and figures of statistics. As a very young President just starting his first term, Kennedy lacks the reputation and reliability that an older, more experienced politician might have available. While it is true that most of the nation had seen him on television during the Nixon-Kennedy Presidential debates, those debates were the near-total of the people’s exposure to the dashing young President, and a pretty face does not a solid political reputation make! However, no matter how dashing and heroic he might have appeared to be in those

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The Inaugural speech by John F. Kennedy is a landmark type of speech that was given to the American populace in order to inspire confidence and to provoke them to take immediate action. His speech made extensive use of rhetorical devices in order to successfully express his goals. His stylistic devices include antithesis, parallelism, and varying structure flows in order to attract attention and to show what his service will accomplish. Kennedy details “a new generation of Americans” by contrasting old and new with his antithesis. He states, “Symbolizes an end as well as a beginning” and “signifies renewal as well as change” in order to do so.

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As President Kennedy enters office he gives an speech on the celebration of freedom; symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning of a new nation. Kennedy rises for the opportunity for persuasion after his inauguration has been addressed and he scarcely beats nixon. President Kennedy uses his authority for persuasion to bring the american people together under his power. The president uses the experience of war,poverty,and the desire for peace to develop an emotional appeal between the U.S and the world population. In this speech Kennedy uses ethos,pathos,logos,as well as other rhetorical devices to convince the audience.

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Kennedy realized how easy it was for a country to break apart in a time that they needed to come together. Being sworn into office, he could see the fear of the future in the eyes of the nation and truly wanted to reassure them that by being willing to face change as one, success was possible. Kennedy was able to assertively get his point across by emphasizing how prioritizing unification of the country is by relying on

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Kennedy’s plan to allow the future to prosper into peace and tranquility would heighten the emotions of citizens. Turning a blind eye to the problems faced at home, Kennedy focused on world peace rather than peace on our own nation. Groups of individuals ended up missing or being killed during the sixties. “This Peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers.

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