Preview

John F Kennedy Inaugural Address Rhetorical Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
366 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
John F Kennedy Inaugural Address Rhetorical Analysis
Equally important, Kennedy effectively uses rhetorical devices such as parallelism, alliteration, and repetition in his Inaugural Address to successfully express his goal for his presidency. For example, Kenney uses parallelism in perhaps his most memorable line of his Inaugural Address, “Ask not what you can do for your country- ask what you can do for your country” (Kennedy). Through parallelism, John F. Kennedy dramatically symbolizes his entire speech into one sentence. By reversing the order of the sentences, the president challenges mankind to withhold personal desires and instead focus on the needs of others. By using parallelism, President Kennedy is able to keep his audience interested. For instance, the president illustrates “power

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech, a speech that gave his plans for the next four years of presidency, and unified all american citizens under one idea. Fifty years later, writer Eleanor Clift published an essay about her beliefs which she meant to show how the united states as a whole failed to carry on JFK’s legacy. JFK’s inaugural speech was very hopeful and positive, while Clift’s essay, “Inside Kennedy’s Inauguration, 50 years on”, was very rueful and somber. Although their purposes and tones contrast, the way that they both use different rhetorical devices makes it so they share one comparison, they both speak to the same audience.…

    • 243 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As a president of a biggest country of the world, we can see that our president is skillful speaker. He is the one of greatest american speakers. One of his famous speech is " Ask not what your country can do for you" when he is in his inaugural address. President Kennedy have used many of the tools in rhetorical or presuasive writing. He has full knowleged with Aristotle three areas of rhetorical such as: Ethos, Pathos and Logos.…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    John F Kennedy delivered one of the finest speeches on January 20, 1961 after being sworn into office. His inauguration speech was so powerful that it captured the entire nation attention, and quotes from it are still remembered by people today. It is one of the finest speeches ever written. It provides a strong appeal to pathos, ethos and logos, and it is because of this that people who never heard the speech can quote lines from it.…

    • 878 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the summer of 1969, Edward M. Kennedy proposed a speech to the American citizens to “apologize” for his actions and unsuccessful attempt at trying to rescue his dear friend Mary Jo. On July 18th, Edward Kennedy, the current president, hosted an annual cookout on Chappaquiddick Island, inviting Kennedy campaign secretaries, one of them being Mary Jo Kopechne. Around 11:15 P.M., Edward offered to drive Mary Jo home, despite the “possible” alcoholic drinks he may have had. She accepted, and not soon after, Edward drove off a bridge into a lake, killing Mary Jo. While the events of the night ended tragically, Edward did have one advantage, saving him throughout all of this, his last name.…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    President John F. Kennedy, in his news conference speech to the nation and steel company, appeals to a sense of community sacrifice and responsibility in an effort to establish his outrage of the rise in steel prices after the recession. Kennedy’s purpose is to address how action should be taken to provide the best interest of success for the United States. He adopts a sharp tone and includes very strong, clear diction which appeals to pathos on order to convey a sense of guilt or harshness that the steel companies are doing because of all the sacrifices the Americans have done.…

    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Facing the recession on April 10, 1966, President John F. Kennedy held a conference the following day to address the 35 percent raise in steel prices. President Kennedy’s speech immediately introduces his argument, stating that United States Steel ( and companies tagging along ) are committing a criminal act upon the public with such an action. Demonstrating his highly educated background with condemning the companies, he paves a clear path into the distinction of an “Us v.s. Them” strategy. President Kennedy is able to gain appeal with the juxtaposition of unity between himself, a millionaire Harvard graduate, and the working-class American citizens, “ . . . the American people will find it hard, as I do . . . ”…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In a brief word, JFK wisely involved the use of rhetorical devices and appeals within the above excerpts by persuading the audience in an innovating approach using alliteration, antithesis, and pathos. Because of such devices, indeed, influenced the mindset of the addresses Kennedy’s inaugural address turn out to be stronger and inspirational to advocate individuals to eradicate every problem that might affect their success or purpose and life.…

    • 1652 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is a young man sitting in front of the television staring into the eyes of the viewers before he glances down to start speaking. Edward Kennedy’s speaks on the tragedy that happened on July 18, 1969 on Chappaquiddick Island, that resulted in the death of a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne. Mary Jo was a secretary of the late Robert Kennedy and was still working with the Kennedy family. He begins his speech to communicate that he has “entered a plea of guilty to the charge of leaving the scene of an accident.” (paragraph 1, line 2-3) This confession of the proceedings he has gone through is an example of Bitzer theory on exigence based on the fact that he is not only admitting his crime but stating that there are more proceedings to…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Why was President Kennedy’s inaugural address so moving? He used many rhetorical devices and formed a good rhetorical tone that made his speech very inspiring. Kennedy, in his inaugural address, talks about the problems of the country and the world and how to fix them. He wants the American citizens to be reassured that he will do many great things and hold a great term in office. One reason that his speech was so convincing was because he appealed to his audiences’ emotions (pathos) effectively all over throughout his essay.…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ever since the establishment of America, great men have instilled wisdom to the future generations. Over the course of various time periods, different men of all backgrounds have come out to speak against the evils and injustices in society. Among these men include Martin Luther King, Jr., a Civil Rights Leader in the 1950s; John Fitzgerald Kennedy, president of the United States during the Cold War; and Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States during the Civil War. All three men have written scores of speeches concentrating on human equality and the rights of individuals. Martin Luther King, Jr., John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Abraham Lincoln suggest that mankind should live in unity because the cooperation between peoples will help a nation stand strong.…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the “Address to the People of Massachusetts on Chappaquiddick” Senator Edward Kennedy attempts to persuade the audience to forgive him and understand that his behavior after this tragic accident is not a part of his character, but just one action of fleeing the scene to which he pleads guilty. He adopts an apologetic tone in order to appeal to the people emotionally and allow the audience to see that he regrets the actions he made.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    One example of figurative language that he often uses is repetition. When explaining how citizens can make the world a better place, Kennedy repeatedly says, “Let both sides…” (online) and lists examples of ways that people can help, such as “Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us” (Kennedy online). This is Kennedy’s way of saying that mankind should focus on the things that will bring them together instead of fighting about topics that they disagree on. John F. Kennedy also uses metaphors such as, “casting off the chains of poverty” (online). His varying use of figurative language makes his Inaugural Address and outstanding speech.…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address is one of the briefest documents in history, it perfectly describes what he plans to do in his time in being president. This speech goes over the period of the Cold War and other matters going on in the world in the early sixties. This was a period in which most Americans were worried about the planet, goals that need to be achieved to ensure the safety of the people of the U.S. and also the new technological advances that were being made. The United States was torn between racism in the 1960’s and Kennedy had to address that in his time in being the president. The Cold War was also at its peak during that time (Bragdon) and the people of the U.S. knew that Kennedy was a young and inexperienced president and were worried about how he was going to lead the nation in times of crisis.…

    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the world we have negative events on a daily bases such as: war, diseases, even death sometimes all of those taunting things are portrayed in the media like the news and social media as a society we can not help of being scared of the unknown. This is called national fear which means is when a nation is threatened about a cause. In the Inaugural Address, John F.Kennedy was facing issues for citizens to fight for people's rights and for people to be treated with respect no matter what race or gender. Civil right figureheads had courage and made sacrifices for a better a world that is now therefore let the purpose of fear motivate others to have courage and take risk. The speaker states, “ The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jfk Literary Analysis

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages

    JFK used many literary devices in his inaugural address, including parallelism, antithesis, metaphor, and alliterations. These devices added a sense of rhythm and tone to his address, while helping get his message across to the audience in an easier to understand way. I would say one of John F Kennedy’s favorite devices was antithesis. His famous phrase in this speech was “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” This is an example of antithesis, which is the contrasting of opposite ideas within a phrase. Another use of this device is “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” This provide an understanding of contrasting ideas for the audience. Even the first sentence in the speech can be considered an antithesis. “… not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom.” This shows the old world politics vs the politics JFK envisioned, not a partisan world, but a common good of freedom being won. Another device JFK really utilized in this speech is parallelism. This device is used to strike home points to audiences, and the way he delivers these in the speech really help the audience grasp the points of his political existence. “We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe” can be considered parallelism because of the repetition of the word ‘any’ throughout the multiple phrases. This kind of phrasing also helps the audience sort through the message a bit easier, and helps stick the message in their minds. Another device JFK uses well metaphor. In one sentence he uses metaphor twice, saying “a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion…” These devices really help the audience visualize these issues as vivid, raw examples from the wars that were going on at the time. It was a common theme to use military examples because of the circumstances and the fact that people knew what was going on oversees. Overall, John F Kennedy uses…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays