How Does Robert F Kennedy Use Rhetorical Devices In Jfk Speech

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.

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.

Throughout Kennedy’s speech you can see many different types of these devices first off, I would like to bring your attention to parallelism. The definition of Parallelism is “Uses of words or phrases in a similar structure”. In his speech he come right out of the gate in the first 5-6 paragraphs and begins to show this. For example on Page (283) Kennedy says, “To those who old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty for old faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of co-operative (SAS) ventures. Divided, there is little we can do, for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder”. Furthermore he then directly goes into his next statement by saying “To those”. I also think that one of the man reasons his speech captivated not only America's people but many other nations, was due to how he connected with the audience.

Kennedy, it is clear that the audience to his speech feel empathy for Martin Luther King Jr and all of the people who his death affected. He states, “ I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world; and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.” (RFK’s speech) Kennedy’s statement breaks the news of Martin Luther King’s death to many people of the USA and makes them feel empathy for Martin Luther King. This inspires people to take action in the world because it helps them realize that things need to be changed and that Martin Luther King shouldn’t die for nothing. Also toward the beginning of the speech, Kennedy inspires the audience to take action. He explains, “Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.” (RFK’s speech) These examples support the argument because they show how Kennedy’s words inspire the world to take action.

Kennedy lays out his central messages by stating, “There are four tests which draw the line,” and then using simplistic transitions to separate them such as first and second. The precise arrangement of Kennedy’s major points is highly effective in not only organizing the speech, but also highlighting the central messages. Another application of syntax used is the chiasmus with the sentence, “Religious values cannot be excluded from every issue, but not every issue involves religious values.” This sentence structure connects the two ideas clearly and simplifies the topic debated throughout the speech. There are several examples of anaphora throughout the piece. The two most noteworthy are the repetition of “I hope” and “For our”. The four times Kennedy repeats the phrase “I hope” correspond directly to the four points he outlined earlier in the speech. Following the repetition, there is a short summary of the analysis of the messages, which allows them to be more easily remembered and comprehended. Kennedy reiterates his key points to reinforce them in the students’ minds as the speech comes to a close. “For ourselves, for our country, and for all the world” is Kennedy’s closing remark. This repetition powerfully drives home the importance of the American people uniting and realizing that the power of change is in their

Kennedy's speech so successful was his use of Anaphora. By using anaphora he made sure to repeat common words to not only keep the attention of the crowd, but to also emphasize the point he was trying to get across. An example of Anaphora can be found in the eleventh paragraph of Kennedy’s speech, “We will have difficult times. We’ve had difficult times in the past, but we -- and we will have difficult times in the future.” His use of the word “difficult” shows that there will never be a time without a struggle and the public should become comfortable with struggles and that it is nothing that as a united nation we can not overcome.

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.

The speech that I decided to do is John F. Kennedy's Address to the Houston Ministerial Association. I will be using both external and internal criticism. With the external criticism I will be examining the time, the occasion, how the audience reacted, John F Kennedy's biographical factors and the effects of the speech. John F Kennedy came from a strong political family, was well educated, defended his country in WW II and received rewards for his courage and bravery, and along with his political career that lead him to the nomination for presidency in 1960. With in the internal criticism I will be looking at the invention, organization, style, and presentation. I will show how he used logical proof, ethical proof, and pathetic proof to

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’

For instance, parallelism such as the statement, “whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, hear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe,” gives flavor to the speech by pointing out opposite words within a single sentence but still making it work. A few antimetaboles are used in the speech, such as “let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate” and “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” make the speech more effective by twisting around the order of the words, or syntax, to get people to realize a point. Additionally, what makes Kennedy’s speech so effective is that he can transition from a simple sentence to a more complex, meaningful one in a matter of lines of the speech. In accordance to the diction, the words in his speech (freedom, poverty, devotion, and loyalty) are considered abstract. This is because they all convey a tone of desire and significant qualities held by friends. They strengthen and add more feeling to the speech as well. However, the archaic words, such as writ and forebears, are used in a manner to bring in the old language as well as the new, therefore there is sophistication as well as understanding. Kennedy also uses juxtaposition when he says, “peaceful revolution,” and this adds spice to the speech because of the contradiction of the two powerful words. Yet

The first thing that makes this speech so memorable is its figurative language. Ridden with alliteration, metaphors, antitheses, repetition and anaphora, figurative language is what makes lines from the speech stick in one’s head and makes it sound more eloquent overall. Alliteration is the usage of repetitive consonant sounds within a sentence. For example, in paragraph five, Kennedy says, “pay any price, bear any burden….” In this sentence, there is alliteration with P’s in the first half and B’s in the second. Throughout the speech, alliteration is used over twenty times. Alliteration is important because it provides emphasis and aids in memory. A metaphor is, according to Oxford Dictionary, “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable”. For example, in

Kennedy begins his speech expressing how “the world is very different” from what it used to be. He uses multiple rhetorical strategies that express and describe how he is going to lead their “very different” country by providing his audience with a sense of community. For example, Kennedy applies juxtaposition to his phrase, “United there is little we cannot do… Divided there is little we can do…” to compare what America can and can’t do when everyone is united. During the time when Kennedy was elected president, the Cold War was at peak of its period. He bravely announced that “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,” using the rhetorical strategy asyndeton. He uses this particular mechanism to attract his audience and give emphasis to the ideas he wants to communicate. He starts the phrase off with “we,” as he wishes to convey to his listeners that we are going to pay any price, that we are going to bear any burden, that

In the beginning, President Kennedy starts his speech by addressing the issue at hand by using allusion and powerful diction. Kennedy is speaking to his American audience on the unfitting civil disputes that have erupted throughout the nation during his presidency. “ Today, we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all that wish to be free.” This sentence in Kennedy’s speech demonstrates not only the problem at hand in America using the literary tactic allusion, but it is also used to inspire the American people to make a difference in the world on how we treat each other. That we are all created equal and should as all our mothers have voiced before, “treat others as you would like to be treated.” Thus, making way for conversation to move to the next stage, logics.

Similarly, Robert Kennedy’s speech also concerns with the assassination of a great man – civil activist Martin Luther King. In his speech, Kennedy, as in Mark Antony’s eulogy, also uses repetition, especially anaphora, to augment and stress the purpose of his speech – that peace and solidarity, instead of anger and division, should be the response to such a devastating event. In his speech, he describes the appropriate course of action in response the recent assassination, “What we need in the United States is not division;” urges Kennedy, “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

Lastly, by means of clear/powerful explanations and moralistic statements of individual God-given freedoms, Kennedy’s voice echoed with the cultural values and beliefs of his audience. This is the rationale, or logical basis, as to why he continually uses the repetitious line, “Let them come to Berlin” in fervent plea to all those who believed communism was the best political ideology to see for themselves and really understand the oppression of the German people. Likewise, Kennedy declares that “Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free,” in order to further point out the common values expressed by democratic nations (Kennedy,