Rhetorical Analysis Of Lyndon Baines Johnson's Speech

Lyndon Baines Johnson was elected Vice President as John F. Kennedy’s running mate. But on the November 22, 1963, when John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the President of the United States, with the vision to build a “Great Society” for the American people. The “Great Society” speech was given by Lyndon Baines Johnson as apart of his presidential campaign. After President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Johnson wanted to continue on the path he was taking, but also take a path of his own. In 1964, during an optimistic speech to the graduating class at the University of Michigan, Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 39th President of the United States, gave the hopeful graduates a task to accomplish

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

Johnson uses controlled outward behavior, relaxed facial expressions, and drawn-out pauses following important words in order to capture the audience’s attention and to adequately get his point across. President Lyndon Baines Johnson sustaining a confident posture thought his speech shows he is confident in the message conveyed in his speech and the severity of the subject matter. Through the punctuation of important statements such as “it demand an end to poverty, and racial injustice...” and “poverty must not be a bar to learning, and learning must offer an escape from poverty,” (“LBJ’s”) President Johnson pauses to give the American audience time to reflect on what he is saying and allowing the audience to reflect on his compelling words. As the speech progresses, the hopeful and optimistic graduates cheer for President Johnson after each word, creating a higher moral and patriotism among the audience maintaining their