Rhetorical Devices In Robert F. Kennedy's Speech

On a cold January day America’s newly appointed president John F. Kennedy delivered his inauguration address that was incredibly important to America’s success during the Cold War. Kennedy uses his speech as a call to arms, but not only to America but the World and our allies as a whole. He uses his strong powerful voice to appeal to the ethics of the country in the beginning of his speech telling America about the promise we made when we were founded and that we must uphold it still today, telling America we must make a difference. Kennedy also uses ethics to explain that we the people are united no matter what your background or where you are from, he refers to the Americas as one place, because he wants for us to feel unified not divided. Furthermore Kennedy’s use of powerful imagery, logic and pathos allows for him to effectively call the people of the World together during this terrible time.

The role of a leader is to always put the interests and needs of the people first. However, a barrier may stand in the way of this connection. While addressing the media on April 11th, 1962, President John F. Kennedy discusses the steel executives’ decision to raise the price of their product, which affected the American public. Throughout this speech, Kennedy strategically berates the executives, removing the blame off himself, as well as rallies together the American public through his appeals to the consciences of the smaller group of executives and the shared virtues of the larger group of Americans.

On April 11, 1962, President John F. Kennedy held a news conference to discuss the 3.5% increase on steel prices across the country. With the country at war, and struggling to emerge from a recession, increasing the price of steel would have a negative impact. After his administration had taken steps to aid the steel companies to reach a non-inflationary steel workers union contract, the decision to increase steel prices was deemed to be a betrayal of the President and the American people. The speech was directed towards the “common man” in opposition to big steel companies. He speaks for the purpose of not only persuading the companies to lower their prices, but also to convince the public that he is looking out for their best interest. Kennedy employs a disapproving tone and strong diction in an effort to clearly achieve his goal in influencing the steel

Prior to 1962, America was beginning to combat its recession. In an attempt to accelerate the process, President John F. Kennedy called upon the nation, to make sacrifices for the benefit of this country. Now, Kennedy is forced to address the nation once again to secure his beliefs, by using diction, repetition, appeals to authority, logic, and emotional appeals. Kennedy’s speech stirred the nation and furthered his dream because of his strategies.

As Commander-In-Chief of a nation emerging from a recession, President John F. Kennedy addresses the hike in steel prices to the American public and steel companies to stigmatize the nation’s leading steel companies for their unnecessary decision to increase steel prices. Within his speech, Kennedy’s use of rhetorical strategies to enhance his purpose is dominated by his dichotomous diction to separate himself from the affluent and align with the suffering American people, parallelism and anaphora to emphasize the equal magnitude of previous American crises to the rise of steel prices, and cause and effect organizational mode to highlight the numerous detrimental effects on the American public caused by the steel companies’ hike in steel prices.

In 1962 President John F. Kennedy gave a speech about the rising steel prices. Throughout his speech he uses many kinds of rhetorical strategies; some include, anaphora , alliteration, and rhetorical appeals. By using these three rhetorical strategies Kennedy's speech was able to be connected to the audience very well.

On January 20, 1961, John Fitzgerald Kennedy became the youngest man to possess presidency in the United States of America. As a young, wealthy man Kennedy rapidly climbed the political ladder by initially representing a working class Boston district in the United States Congress, then continuing on to the House of Representatives, followed by the United States Senate, and ending with the victorious defeat of his presidential opponent, to become the 35th president of the United States. According to theatlantic.com, Kennedy was so admired by the public, that “in the eyes of the world, this reticent man became a charismatic leader who, in his life and in his death, served as a symbol of purpose and hope.” As a result of John F. Kennedy’s

In John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech, he worked on persuading audience or listeners for the idea which is American should do anything that should be done to assure the survival and the success of liberty. In his mind, American should hold their liberty forever, further guarantee other country freedom. Kennedy really used a lot of rhetorical strategies in his speech. Of course, he used those strategies successfully. One of the rhetorical devices he used was antithesis. Another rhetorical device that I found out was metaphor which is a good way to create a good image, further, make audience believed in his mind.

John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech is certainly one to remember. It’s memorable not for its length, but for the effective content that it beholds. He entices readers by the use of strong rhetoric techniques. His inaugural analyzes style of writing, such as diction, tropes, schemes, and syntax, and applies the concept of it effectively throughout the speech. A reader performs rhetorical analysis to examine how authors attempt to persuade their audiences by looking at the various components that make up the art of persuasion. Moreover, it is most essential to be able to understand the relationship among the speaker, subject, and audience, which President Kennedy adequately exploits in his speech.

In 1961, The United States of America was gridlocked with social injustice, inequalities, and intense racial tension, while combating the “red scare” of communism and protecting the population abroad from weapons of mass destruction and otherwise harbored by enemies both foreign and domestic. Terror and incertitude had seized the minds of the American people as the Cold War drew to its zenith. Desperate for a strong, reassuring leader, they turned to the young, former naval lieutenant and Presidential candidate, John Fitzgerald Kennedy who provided the reassurance the American populous yearned for as he charismatically and confidently addressed the nation. With critical rumination to the current national and international turmoil, Kennedy sought to ignite unity and esprit de corps in the American people in an endeavor to attain a lasting resolve. Kennedy’s inaugural address is imbued with rhetorical strategies to flatter and influence the emotions of the people through the use his strategic use of the rhetorical triangle without detracting from the truth and evidence expected from a national leader.

The distinctive voices, inherent in any text, are intended to have an impact on the audience. Significant voices are influenced by the values and beliefs of the composer, as well as cultural, political and historical content. Composers use a range of language tools and features to successfully covey messages to their audience. John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, Severn Cullis-Suzuki’s Address to the Plenary Session, Earth Summit and Charlie Chaplin’s Let us all unite, all provide excellent examples of a distinctive voice. Each of these distinctive voices is formed through the use of emotive language, tone, repetition and rhetorical devices.

There are many things that a speech must contain to make it a well written and spoken speech. John F. Kennedy 's speech he gave on September 12th 1962, titled “Address at Rice University on the Nation 's Space Efforts”, better known as “We Choose to go to the Moon” contains many of the important factors of a successful speech. Kennedy used rhetorical strategies and skills to help him influence the American people to help accomplish the major goal of reaching the moon. Kennedy did not only want to reach the moon, but he wanted to be the first country to do so. President Kennedy effectively told the objective he found important by using ethos, pathos and kairos throughout his speech to help get the support of the people. By using these three rhetorical strategies Kennedy gave a moving speech.

A global call for peace was made on January 20th, 1961. John F. Kennedy asked the world to find a well-known but hard concept -- world peace. Kennedy uses rhetoric, the art of speech or communication, to make their speeches less bland and more convincing, throughout his speech. At the time the U.S.A and the U.S.S.R were fighting in the Cold War, and the world was under constant threat of a nuclear war. In “JFK’s Inaugural Address,” Kennedy claims mankind should seek a global peace. He effectively builds this claim by using the following: ethical and emotional appeals, as well as tricolon and anaphora.

Robert Kennedy Speech “Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.” (1968) explains that the death of Martin Luther King Jr, will affect their community but they must remain calm. Kennedy uses the motivational appeals of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos multiple times in his speech in order to get the message through his audience that went to support his conference campaign.

John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech was considered one of the most inspirational speeches in American history. He gave the speech to bolster the fighting spirit and act as an inspiration for the Americans. The reason for this is quite simple actually. He used stylistic devices extensively in his speech to boldly proclaim his intentions. He has proven himself resourceful in his usage of stylistic devices such as antithesis, parallelism, pathos, and ethos. He uses them to fully express his message and to gain the attention and the support of his people in a patriotic fashion. One of the examples of his use of antithesis is when Kennedy is referring to “a new generation of Americans” where he vividly shows the separation between the old and