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Rhetorical Analysis Of John F. Kennedy's Moral Speech

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John F. Kennedy won the 1960 US presidency election by a small margin as the youngest and the only Roman Catholic president in history. In the peak of the cold war, Kennedy delivered the most influential inaugural address of all time, in which he inspires and unites people listening, watching or reading his speech around the world. I believe Kennedy successfully establishes his legacy of encouraging people to take positive actions for liberty through his inaugural address with the efficient use of ethos, logos and pathos. Kennedy gradually builds his ethos as a strong yet approachable leader in the speech. As the president of US, Kennedy has an automatic ethos. However, due to his young age and his Roman Catholic belief, it is still crucial for him to enhance his ethos in the beginning of his presidency. Kennedy first refers to the shared roots between the audience and himself, “We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution”. The audience and the speaker are all the successors of the great funders of United States, who fought for liberty and independence. Kennedy then points out other visible shared experiences: “born in this century” represents he is with the younger generation. “Tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace” indicates that he experienced …show more content…

He gradually builds ethos through a logically constructed structure and address the concern of every patriots and everyone who loves freedom. In this speech, Kennedy successfully established the legacy of unifying people around the world to fight for liberty. His inaugural speech no doubt reflects Kennedy administration’s future foreign policies. The positive actions for liberty that Kennedy encourages citizens to do also foreshadows tensions in Cuba and Vietnam later on. Regardless the ideology behind it, this speech is still an eloquent

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John F. Kennedy, the United States 35th President, delivered his famous inaugural speech on January 20, 1961. He developed his idea by using metaphor and emotion-arousing words to inspired citizens to fight against enemies and warned the foes not to challenge America any more. JFK’s purpose was to encourage citizens not to give in to the enemies and admonished the country’s communist opponents for their frequent defiance. By using metaphor and emotion-arousing words, JFK expressed his passionate tone successfully in order to convey his idea to USA, USSR and others.

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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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In fact, Kennedy accomplished his goal and is still remembered today, as the best speech ever written and delivered. Kennedy presents his speech with strong Aristotelian appeals of ethos, pathos and the stylistic devices of alliteration and antithesis. Kennedy accomplished what every speaker strives for and surpassed it by capturing the hearts of the audience and inspiring the people’s trust. Ethos is a very important rhetorical device in speeches because it establishes a sense of credibility and trustworthiness with the audience. Ethos permits the audience to feel a sense of trust that is missing in some people’s speeches.

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