Summary Of John F Kennedy's Inaugural Address

An Analysis of the Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy
In America history, every elected president will have an Inaugural Address to use multiple techniques to win their audiences. There is no exception in John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address which invokes the use of many rhetorical devices such as consonance, parallelism and anaphora.
First, let’s talk about consonance which refers to the repetition of the final and identical consonants whose preceding vowels are different. for example,
-----Symbolizing an end as well as a beginning-----signifying renewal as well as a change. (para.1)
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill. (para.4)
As we can see in the above sentences, the consonance is employed: [iŋ] as in symbolizing and signifying and [l]as in well and ill. We all know that an eloquent speaker always try his best to make the speech more rhythmic and more appealing. John F. Kennedy use consonance to stress that he will open a new chapter for America and ensure the survival of freedom.
Second, it comes to parallelism.
Parallelism is the repetition of syntactically similar constructions of coordinate sentences or phrases. Because of the unique characteristics, parallelism is often used in persuasive speech. Look at the examples,
The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans ---- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage.
(para.3)
We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. (para.4)
Let us explore the stars, conquer the desserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce. (para.17)
In the first example, the italicized words which are all past participle verbs which are grammatically alike. John F. Kennedy emphasizes that America’s future lies in the new generation and this generation are qualified to shoulder their responsibility.
In the last two sentences, the italicized words are all verbs in the simple present tense. The president calls on Americans to spare no efforts to ensure the existence of freedom and this kind of freedom cannot be damaged by any people. And he also persuades both sides of the Cold War cooperate in scientific affairs and properly hand the conflict in order to not be involved in nuclear war.
At last, let's talk about anaphora. It is a popular figure of speech involving the repetition of the same word at the beginning of successive clauses, sentences. Anaphora is often used to gain more emphasis to convey strong emotions. For example, from the paragraph six, it uses “to those old allies”, “to those new states”, ”to those peoples” , “to our sister republics” , “to those nations” to make clear its diplomatic position that is America will be loyal to the cooperation and seek common development and will welcome those new countries to join the camp and America are willing to offer financial and political support to confront with the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union.
Besides, anaphora is also employed from paragraph 15 to paragraph 18 shares the same beginning “Let both sides”. In this part, John F. Kennedy calls for an eventual cessation of hostilities and calls on to explore how to make the both sides united and to cooperate with each other in terms of science and technology rather than terrors.
Presidential inauguration is a solemn occasion which requires a formal speech with short, forceful and appealing to emotion. There is no doubt that John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address is successful because the proper use of figures of speech and maybe it is the reason why it is still a good example in learning English rhetoric and analyzing speeches.