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Rhetorical Analysis Of Robert Kennedy's Speech

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Robert Kennedy gave his heartfelt speech with his remarks on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 in Indianapolis. In this speech he tried to promote peace over violence to his primarily African American audience. Hia leading appeal was pathos as he read a poem by Aeschylus and spoke about his brother. Kennedy tried to get them to follow along with him by sympathizing with them and bringing up what Martin Luther King spent his life doing, what he died doing. Kennedy said “we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand”. He wanted people to replace everything bad in the country with and passion like King had. Kennedy related with the people by bringing up an act of violence in his own family that he had to deal with. He brought up “I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.” He brought that up to let them see that they have a right to be filled with hatred and skepticism they shouldn’t riot over it and ruin the country that King spent his life trying to fix. …show more content…

He read the line “ against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.” This quote said that you get wisdom with things that don’t go right. Kennedy was making light in a dark situation. He then went into what our nation needed. After Kennedy stated conditions the United States didn’t need to be in he said “ what we need in the United States in not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another”. He wanted to get across to the audience that no act of violence would help the

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"...to convert our good words into good deeds…" and "to assist free men and free governments…". Like many other politicians, Kennedy promises to do what he says he will do. It is meant to give a positive impact for United States citizens, that they can trust this man with their future in America and not mess it up. He promises to assist other countries and help them keep their independence by backing them up when threat of war reaches them. The quote "...this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers.

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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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Kennedy, the candidate for the presidency at the time, chose to ditch his original speech and instead comment on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In 'Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr,' Kennedy states, "For our own country, which all of us love--a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke. We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.

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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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Kennedy delivered a speech on April 4, 1968 titled Remarks on the Assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In this speech Kennedy tells his audience that Dr. Martin Luther King, has just been assassinated. Kennedy talks about all the things that King has done for the human race. A rhetorical device that was most prominent in Kennedy’s speech was anaphora, “What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion towards one another.”

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This connects the younger generation of Americans and the older generation. He unites them under one goal and one purpose by using antithesis, ignoring their differences, and prepares them for what’s there to come in the future. He uses ethos quite effectively to re-establish his personal character. It was well known that Kennedy was a very religious man, and he reinforces this concept by citing the Lord’s name several times, as well as alluding to

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Also, he is stating to never be afraid and figure out ways to face them. By doing this, Kennedy left a greater impact on people by making his speech more

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His motivation was in using the speech to restore the faith and peace in America, since he knew racial tensions were high and now even higher. Robert states “But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond and go beyond these rather difficult times” (kennedy).He said this to show to the people that even though

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Kennedy also says that we need to work together as a team to make peace. He gives evidence that he has had a family member killed by white person and that we need to work together. He believed they they were able to continue with what MLK left. he thought that if we all worked together the blacks and whites could get along very well. Kennedy knew what it felt like to have a member of his family killed by a white person.

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On April 4, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was in Indianapolis for a campaign stop, when he received news that Martin Luther King was killed, causing Kennedy to write and deliver a speech regarding the assassination. This speech was succinct but not only was it about the assassination, it was also to tell the people there is still wisdom and hope in this time of turmoil. To reach this purpose, he first builds up his ethos, uses pathos to add mood and hope, and unifies the people. The combination of these elements makes it a very powerful and memorable speech. Robert F. Kennedy builds his credibility by relating his personal experience and knowledge of what the audience is feeling to the current events.

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Initially, King and Kennedy had similar views on freedom. For instance, both men believed that change and rights would come only if there is faith in God and in themselves. King stated in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” that he wants “the radiant stars of love and brotherhood [to] shine” over all (teachingamericanhistory). In Kennedy’s inaugural address he said, “the belief that the rights of a man come not from

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This quote shows Kennedy’s commitment to these ideals which proves that he is a president with great morals and ethical character just like what the United States has. Kennedy’s speech resonated with the audience because it showed how similar the views of the president and those in the audience were. The audience learned that they have the same ability to make an impact on the world as the president since he asked for their help. This convinced the audience to do something for their country, and so the result of the speech was

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Kennedy shares that he thinks everyone should choose peace instead of violence. In the passage it says, “What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black”. This tells us how big of an impact Kennedy tried to make amongst the crowd. In Kennedy's speech he also uses Pathos to explain how he feels about what happened April 4th

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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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“In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our despair, against our will comes wisdom through the awful grace of God”(24-30). RFK used this quote to say people may want to stay angry and bitter, but anger will eventually be replaced with wisdom and understanding no matter how much they try to fight it. Kennedy recognizes his audience as Americans, but especially

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