Rhetorical Analysis Of Lyndon B. Johnson's Speech

President Johnson, armed with his speech, stood to persuade the congressmen to pass a bill that ensured equal voting rights for all. In a period when privileges were more inclined to the whites than to African Americans, voting rights applied selectively. At that time, it was needed that all be treated equally if America wanted to be proud of its supremacy above all other countries in the world. The president had to select his words wisely since the approval of congress was crucial to America’s future. Not only did the president have to work on the emotions of the attendants, but he also had to be logical in his claims, as well as build confidence regarding his appeal. President Lyndon B. Johnson applied connotative diction, repetition, and

The words "all the majesty of this great government" translates into the need for the American government to be a good example for the rest of the world, especially through the adoption of equal voting rights. Connotative diction appears again in paragraph 8 where the words "lay bare the secret heart of America" are used to indicate the issues that affected Americans themselves, but were ignored. The time had come to stop fighting external battles and focus on improving the welfare of the Americans. Paragraph 9 dilutes all the other development efforts of the American government using connotative diction. The use of words "conquer the stars" represents the highest level of development that the American nation would achieve. The words relate well to the comparison of the importance of the mission at hand, which entailed the passing of the bill. The words, "to apply any other test" in paragraph 14 connotatively translates to use of any other means to change the people's minds. They had what they believed in, and no amount of change would erode their

He used the words to sensitize the attendants to understand the magnitude of the topic that he was to address. The listeners would then relate the rest of the speech to the future that was created by the repeated words. Paragraph 2 uses repetition to convey a compromise thereby ensuring that the speech was not meant for the opposing side only. Repetition appears again in paragraph 5. Words such as "There is no cause for" are used to emphasize that there was nothing to show for the past battles for democracy. In paragraph 7, President Johnson seeks to make the congressmen see how long it had taken while fighting the battle. It creates logic in adopting the bill, therefore switching to other constructive activities that were beneficial to the country. The word "issues" has been repeated in paragraph 8 to draw the attention of the congressmen to what the government was focusing on at the time. The paragraph shoots down the government for acting selectively on matters of national importance. The word "duty" is repeated twice in paragraph 16 to show that the people took it into their own hands to fight for their equal right. It eliminated any coercion that could have been behind the uprising for the black rights to