Rhetorical Analysis Of John F Kennedy Speech

As the United States was emerged from a recession, many of the large steel companies decided to monopolize steel prices by raising it 3.5 percent, which would lead to President Kennedy responding to the businesses actions. On April 11, 1962, Kennedy in a news conference would go onto shaming the steel prices brought by these corporations, especially after asking in a program of national sacrifice to help stable prices and wages. His usage of rhetorical strategies such as unifying diction, the literary device of pathos, and a disapproving tone in order to achieve his purpose of not only reversing the increase of steel prices to normal but also disgrace their actions.

Throughout his speech in which he scolds steel executives for increasing its price, Kennedy appeals to the audience’s sense of duty and disdain of avarice in order to unify himself within the American public while simultaneously creating distance from the wealthy and influential executives. Throughout the entire speech, Kennedy utilizes the first person “we” or “our,” therefore, including himself among his audience while addressing their hardships during this time of war. With this inclusion, he allows himself to appear innocent, wholly affected and enraged by the sudden decision of the steel executives to raise their prices; thus, he shares the same grievances and sacrifices as the audience, who are the victims of this situation. As he defends the American public, Kennedy heavily juxtaposes this idea of sacrifice with the executives’

Throughout his speech, he frequently makes comments expressing his disappointment in the steel companies, and how he feels they have betrayed the American people. In the introduction, Kennedy states, “Simultaneous actions of United States Steel and other steel corporations, increasing steel prices by some 6 dollars a ton, constitute a wholly unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance of the public interest” (1-5). This quote demonstrates how Kennedy used his tone to take a stance on the issue, and let the steel companies know that he is outraged by their price increase. During this time period, Kennedy strongly believed that the American people and big businesses needed to work together to get out of the recession. In his final words, Kennedy says, “Some time ago I asked each American to consider what he would do for his country and I asked the steel companies. In the last 24 hours we had their answer” (107-110). In this quote, Kennedy is disapprovingly implying that the steel companies’ price increase is un-American and

He directly calls out the steel companies in his speech and shames them in front of the common people. Kennedy is attempting to infer that while the steel companies are relaxing and just raising their prices, the common people are having to make sacrifices and lose their lives.

Despite being a Harvard graduate and president of a nation, Kennedy associates himself with the discontented Americans as both “the American people will find it hard, as [he] do[es],” to accept the steel crisis. Throughout his speech, Kennedy’s use of dichotomous language such as “we”, “our,” “their,” and “they” allows Kennedy to vocalize that he and “185 million Americans” are facing this crisis together while painting the steel companies as their common enemy. Through his language, he adopts a wrathful yet sentimental tone in order to appeal to the shared feelings with his fellow American people. As a result, he is able to build the “us” versus “them” mentality amongst the American people to enhance the shared dissatisfaction towards the steel companies’ hike in steel prices. By employing forceful vocabulary, Kennedy elevates the “us” versus “them” mentality as he continues to pit the steel companies against “every American family.” He describes their actions as “unjustifiable and irresponsible defiance” to once again demonizes the steel companies as a threat towards American interest. By criticizing the steel companies, Kennedy removes himself and his Administration as responsible for the detriments caused by the steel companies, allowing him to further his dissociation from the greedy affluent and reassure the American people that he is on their

Moreover in the speech, John F. Kennedy uses pathos to provoke emotion by saying, “...confronted with grave crises...asking Reservists to leave their homes and family…” This portion of the speech also uses allusion because this Reservist issue is a well known problem and he chooses to address it. Kennedy also provides use for ethos by providing real, worldwide example of crises. The tone of this speech switches over to how consequences play a role in this issue, “...increase costs of homes, autos, appliances…” which is used in place to create a reminder, or alarm, to foreshadow the future of American citizens negatively if steel companies continue to keep those high prices or continue to raise them. Kennedy portrays the impact by saying, “185 million Americans…” are going to have to sacrifice parts of their lives for the selfish desires of greedy steel companies.

Kennedy gave many speeches about peace, world hunger etc. all causing some sort of ripple effect, all of them were “ Make not only America but the world great again speeches” One particular speech that really stood out was his first inaugural speech given in 1961. Kennedy states, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country”. He genuinely reflects this throughout his life. He also states, “Ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you”, holding himself and America to the standards of patriotism. He gave these quotes in his speech to emphasize what citizens should be doing, and what standards citizens and the government should be held at. By doing this he intensifies the meaning of “actions speak louder than

The first device that President John F. Kennedy uses to combat the issue of raising steel prices is parallelism. In the second paragraph of his speech, he begins listing outcomes of the dramatic increase in steel prices by saying, "...when we are confronted with grave crises in Berlin and Southeast Asia, when we are devoting out energies to economic recovery and stability, when we are asking Reservists to leave their homes and families for months on end, and servicemen to risk their lives..."(lines 6-12) This is an effective use of parallelism because he builds on the previous statement by starting out the one that follows with the same introduction: "...when we are..." He is trying to prove that America is in a crisis situation and the steel companies increasing their prices is only going to make the situation even worse. He is showing all of the sacrifices that people are making and proving to the steel companies that their high wages are going to have a very negative effect on a people who are sacrificing more than anyone would have ever expected for their country. The second example of parallelism is in the third paragraph of his speech, when he begins by saying, "...it would increase the cost of homes, autos, and appliances, and most other items for every American family. It would increase the cost of machinery and tools to every American businessman and farmer. It would seriously handicap out efforts to prevent an inflationary spiral from eating up the pensions of out older citizens, and our new gains in purchasing power."(lines 23-31) He is pleading to the steel companies to lower their prices through showing them examples

Throughout his speech, Kennedy utilizes a rhetorical device called repetition. Kennedy applies this strategy when he states, “...It would make it more difficult for American Goods to compete in foreign markets, more difficult to withstand competition from foreign imports and thus more difficult to improve our balance of payment positions…”(Ln. 35-40) The evidence clearly represents repetition because the phrase “more difficult” repeats exactly three times. Repetition enables Kennedy to provoke urgency by repetition of the same phrase with regards to convincing the audience into exhorting the steel companies. Then, Kennedy further employs repetition when he expounds on the problems already existing in America, and now the steel companies add on to the stress by increasing steel prices. When he says, “...when we are confronted with grave crisis and Berlin in Southeast Asia, when we are devoting our energies to economic recovery and stability…”(Ln. 6-9) Kennedy repeats the phrase “when we are” in order to allow Kennedy to persuade the audience to protest against the rise in steel prices so that the steel companies lower the price of steel. The audience will then see that the hike in steel prices will affect them, which would then produce in them a

He makes that clear when he points out how the acts of the companies are “unjustifiable and irresponsible” (4). Juxtaposing that would be the grouping of the steal companies and how far away they are from average people by calling them “ruthless” and saying have “no disregard for their public responsibilities” (82-82). He disagrees with what they are doing and feels it is unjust. They only care about is how much money they make and how positively it effects them. It is interesting to note, though, Kennedy uses “I” when he is talking about his position in power and how he could change something. His strategy allows him to convey different messages when needed so he is able to best relate to his audience.

By using words and phrases like “unjustifiable,” “irresponsible defiance of public interest,” “grave crises,” and “ruthless disregard,” Kennedy appealed to the audience’s pathos, making them feel robbed of the truth and treated like consumers instead of people. Kennedy appealed to the audience’s logos in lines 46-83 by explaining why there was no reason for a price raise and that the large steel companies were disregarding their “public responsibility” by raising prices to unnecessary rates when they could be exploring other options for better prices. This appeal works especially well with the audience he is addressing, which is the “servicemen,” “farmers,” and the “reservists,” who respect hard work and except fairness in return. Kennedy even mentions that the steel companies have an “unusually good labor contract,” inferring that the companies have it good, and yet are still raising prices on the hard working people of America. While making the audience feel robbed and mistreated, Kennedy frequently uses the word “we” to create a sense of comradery, almost as if Kennedy himself were being treated unfairly as well, so to make it seem that he could be the audience’s shoulder to cry on, or in this case, be the brother to go shoulder-to-shoulder with in the battle for

“pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty” in order to have freedom. He uses parallelism to make his speech stand out and to place an order of importance. This shows what he wants for the country, which is to do it together. Kennedy repeats “To those” to refer to different people around the

Kennedy utilized an empathetic tone throughout his speech to gain his audience’s trust and validate their emotions. After the assassination of his brother, he could relate to the pain of the black audience in a way only he could. Kennedy reminds the audience that “I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.” Kennedy sought to gain their trust by reminding them that he knows their feelings because he recently went through a similar tragedy. If Kennedy’s audience trusted him, they would be less likely to revolt. He reveals to the crowd that he understands their temptation to be filled with “hatred and

John F. Kennedy is one of the most influential presidents of modern times. From having an airport, schools, museums, and even libraries named after him, his legacy is still present today. What made Kennedy special was the way he spoke to the American people. Rather than being just a politician, Kennedy showed a human side to him. He connected with the people. This is one of the reasons why his approval ratings are some of the highest in recent history. Kennedy was very captivating when speaking to the American people. When criticizing major steel companies for raising steel prices, Kennedy uses parallel structure, ethos, and an urgent tone to convince not only the people, but steel companies as well, to not raise steel prices.

Kennedy calls the steel companies “irresponsible” for “increasing steel prices” because raising the prices goes against the “public interest” of Americans. The price increase is “wholly unjustifiable” because the steel companies do not need the money they will gain from this price increase to avoid laying people off or avoid going bankrupt. They simply want to make more money for their own selfish gain. The steel company’s actions disappoint Kennedy because many Americans make sacrifices to help the country rebound from the recession. Kennedy has a very indignant tone while he speaks about the steel companies “At a time when restraint and sacrifice are being asked of every citizen, the American people will find it hard, as I do, to accept a situation in which a tiny handful of steel executives whose pursuit of private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility can show such utter contempt for the interests of 185 million Americans”.