John F Kennedy Call For Sacrifice Rhetorical Analysis

Kennedy asks the audience to work with a goal to “tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world,” which reveals that he uses the audience’s emotions of suffering due to brutality and contempt and commands them to replace it with the pleasant feeling of gentility (Kennedy). This appeal to the audience’s emotions inspires them to act emotionally and empathetically when carrying out Kennedy’s message of compassion. Kennedy uses an emotional appeal toward the end because he has already gained the audience’s trust and argued from a logical standpoint, so now, in his closing statements, he must leave the audience with strong emotions that will linger in their hearts and remind them why feeling empathy and compassion is essential to improving the world. During this part of the speech, Kennedy uses an inspiring tone to persuade listeners that unity will bring about a better world. Kennedy states, “Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people,” inspiring listeners that through dedication to a common cause, they can end the division and violence that plagues the United States (Kennedy). By using an inspiring tone, Kennedy convinces his listeners that they have the ability to make a change with the purpose of causing

When Kennedy uses a hoard of facts, it convinces the audience that Kennedy was right when he said that the steel business didn’t need to increase the steel prices because of the recession. It “logically appeals” to the audience which means they now want to support Kennedy’s plan to stabilize prices.

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.

In John F Kennedy’s “Inaugural address”, he tries to bring the nation together by speaking confidently and powerful. Kennedy’s vigorous use of rhetorical devices including Antithesis, Reasoning, Emotional Appeal, Allusion, and Anaphora that contribute to the success of his speech. JFK uses these rhetorical devices to convey his ambitions and hopes for america as a nation in a whole. Also hoping for a pledge of peace; that we do not show weakness. In his hopes of coming together our acts individually would make us look and be stronger. Kennedy used his speech as a way to draw all of the audience in by pulling us together.

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.

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

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”.

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

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.

While the speech’s respectful eloquence is appropriate for the occasion of an inauguration, its youthful energy and look to the future make it distinctly John F. Kennedy’s. , The people of the United States desperately needed a boost in morale with ongoing tension of races, inequalities, the fight against communism and the cold war. The people were convinced that this war would be never ending, and believed in another inevitable war. From the beginning to the end of JFK’s speech, he uses a plethora of rhetorical devices to comfort the people and fill them with confidence.

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’

Kennedy continues his appeal to emotion with a weaker, yet still successful attempt. Around election time, seemingly all American’s reveal their inner-patriot, understanding this Kennedy speaks to that inner patriot. Speaking of foreign affairs, he says, “…let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.”(3) This appeal is successful, as speaking of the Hemisphere as a whole represents unity, and also reaches out to the pride within the audience, stating that Americans shall remain in power of all they have worked so hard to obtain.

Compared to Kennedy’s speech, Eleanor Clift’s, “ Inside Kennedy’s Inauguration, 50 Years On,” utilizes a journalistic approach while still appealing to ethos and pathos to achieve her purpose. Clift establishes her credibility through the use of many direct quotes within her article rather than establishing shared values like within Kennedy’s speech. The article is structured so that each paragraph of the article is the recollection of a different person who attended; a different perspective of the inauguration is discussed each time in chronological order rather than the use of parallelism and climax. At the same time, Clift appeals to pathos, similar to Kennedy, but instead uses anecdotes rather than figurative language. An example of which is seen in the quote, “We forget, looking back on it, how powerful the anti-catholic was,” which states the difficulty Kennedy faced in the election due to his affiliation with Catholicism. The quote is then followed up further in the text with the quote, “We had to win in West Virginia to prove that a Catholic could win because there were so few Catholics there, only 1 or 2 percent.” A feeling of inspiration and respect toward Kennedy is created similar to the feelings patriotism stirred during his inauguration speech. Clift establishes her article in a different

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

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, has become one of the most famous presidents in the nation's history due to his oratory skills and eloquence (Biane,2011). In this paper, we present an analysis the inaugural speech that he delivered in January 1961. Even though his Inaugural speech lasted less than fifteen minutes, the message that he saliently delivered was one that has continued to resonate in the very hearts of American citizens.