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Rhetorical Analysis Of Lyndon B Johnson's Inaugural Address

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Lyndon B. Johnson’s Presidential Inaugural Address given on January 20, 1965, encourages the United States of America to look to the future with the idea of ‘change’ in mind and to leave behind old fruitless habits. Johnson supports this claim with logical reasoning of scientific advances, justification using religion, and personal experience and beliefs. His purpose is to reassure the nation that change is beneficial and will only be successful if the country works together to create a nation built on faith, transformation, and evolution. Johnson writes to the U.S. because it is his obligation as president to bring forth unity, providing the opportunity for growth. He creates a stable and reliable tone to connect to the audience to reach …show more content…

He “inceptions” the idea into their head. As a male with one of the most powerful and influential jobs in America, it is his prime responsibility to solidify and represent what it means to be a citizen of the U.S. The entirety of his speech uplifts Americans into creating a brighter future by letting go of the past and finding justice through change. Johnson immediately starts off with an optimistic tone acknowledging that destiny can be rewritten and encourages citizens to make their own decisions. He builds on beliefs and rebuts his claim of technological advancement, clarifying that even with all the technology in the world, it will get you nowhere without faith. He switches from pessimistic to optimistic and speaks about a covenant, a well-known religious idea called a promise. Johnson comments on the values of each covenant: justice, liberty, change, and union, asserting that it is the foundation of America, without it there is no future. To build on this idea, he compares our values to the enemy, Vietnam. They may seem powerful because of their technology and weapons, when in reality they are a fragile country, barely holding on because there is nothing gluing them together, they have no

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“We shall overcome” is a speech by Lyndon Baines Johnson on March 15, 1965. This speech took place one week after Selma. “We shall overcome” was created to convince the Members of Congress, into joining him in his fight against racism by approving a bill meant to abolish racist voting restrictions. Lyndon Johnson’s speech to convince Members of congress to help him pass a bill to abolish racist voting restrictions by using a strong tone to create the sense that what he was saying was important, and in his speech he used Pathos and Logos to make the crowd feel sympathy for the black community because of the harsh truth.

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Lyndon B. Johnson’s speech, “Peace without Conquest”, analyzed the United States standing with South Vietnam and iterated that ending the Vietnamese War would not end all wars, that we would eventually come across war with another enemy. America’s duty was to protect and defend the independence of South Vietnam, and Johnson intended on reaching this goal by any means. Johnson told the American people that they were fighting for the independence of Vietnam and also America’s own security. Johnson then mentioned the primary objective that all Americans sought: preserve the American dream to resolve worldly conflict in a peaceful manner rather than brutal war. Johnson finally ended his noteworthy speech by questioning himself aloud to the American

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Lyndon Baines Johnson proposes his plan with a hopeful tone through the diction of “inspire” and “we can” (Johnson) to make the American people have a better relationship with the government in order for them to “prevent an ugly America” (Johnson), and to emphasis that as American citizens if we come together, America can be a stronger country than ever before. In addition to Lyndon Baines Johnson’s optimistic and hopeful tone, he dwells on the problems of the cities, education, and the environment. This is thought provoking because President Lyndon Baines Johnson uses these problems to show the graduates and the American citizens that there needs to be change. American citizens can create this change by everyone coming together with the government to create a “Great Society” which will resolve these

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