The Rhetorical Analysis Of President Lyndon Baines Johnson's Speech

A president who led the United States out of the great depression into a new world and then through a terrorist attack to be know to have given the most memorable speech of the United States history is named Franklin Roosevelt. On December 7th, 1941,Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan and the following day Roosevelt stood in front of the United States suggesting to declare war on Japan for their actions. Within Roosevelt’s speech he uses the audience’s emotion to bring them together against Japan with anger but also with hope. Then Roosevelt goes into the facts that are leading the country into danger to try and get congress to declare war; Roosevelt’s use of logos becomes a model for other speeches, like Bush’s speech after 9/11. Finally, Roosevelt is determined to show how unethical Japan was during the attack and how declaring war is truly moral to protect the country. Roosevelt’s infamous speech strives to bring the nation into unity to declare war on Japan through emotion, reason and virtues.

In the 1965 speech, We Shall Overcome, Lyndon B. Johnson discusses the copious amounts of cruel racial discrimination occurring in America and his plan to eradicate it. This speech follows the recent events that occurred in Selma, Alabama when African Americans were attacked while preparing to march to Montgomery in protest of voting discrimination. Johnson asserts his stance on racial equality by using compelling anaphora, the specific use of pronouns, appeals to pathos through references to the bible, and appeals to logos through the use of historical evidence. Johnson successfully utilizes these rhetorical devices in order to communicate to Americans of all races, religions, and political parties, his plan to eliminate discrimination, as well as encourage every American to embrace diversity and equality and spread his idea of a “Great Society.” Although the idea of a President with allegiances to the white southern population taking initiative towards equality was a very controversial and unfamiliar concept, Johnson does an exceptional job of maintaining an authoritative, yet inspiring tone throughout his speech in order to persuade Americans that equality is the first step to a greater nation.

In Lyndon B. Johnson’s speech The Great Society he is effective in showing that the society must work to build and achieve a great society. He is effective in showing this by giving examples of how to improve America by using rhetorical devices in his speech to create envisionments of the future in the society. By doing this he is effective in his speech to motivate people to participate and help develop this great society.

Every choice, every action and every decision we make has a consequence. A couple weeks ago, I read two speeches by the 16th president, who served two terms, and an American politician, who is the brother of John F. Kennedy. The first speech I read was delivered on April 4th in 1968 by Robert F. Kennedy. He spoke about the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. that occured in Memphis, Tennessee that same night. The second one was Abraham Lincoln’s Sencond Inaugural Address. Kennedy’s speech occured after Martin Luther King’s Assassination and Lincoln’s happened after he was elected president for a second term. In Robert F. Kennedy’s speech, he mentions race, hatred and the lack of compassion we have for one another. Although, in Abraham Lincoln’s speech, he mentions the tragedy of the American Civil War, the distribution of slaves, and God.

At the time of Lyndon B. Johnson’s speech in 1965, “The American Promise”, conflict over civil rights has been brewing for over a hundred years. A large group of people planned on marching from Selma, Alabama to Montgomery, but fights broke out and it quickly escalated into violence. Given shortly after the happenings in Selma, President Johnson spoke before the Congress on the importance of passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a man in a position of power, the desperation of the situation is prominent to him, yet he calmly presses the manner in order to persuade them of his view. President Johnson uses rhetorical devices, such as allusion and connotative diction, to create an ethical and emotional appeal toward his audience during that time of civil unrest.

As a person who was known for his ability to speak publicly, and communicate comprehensible meanings while inspiring the people of his nation, President John F. Kennedy (JFK) gave his inaugural address on January 20th, 1961 in Washington D.C.. JFK was widely distinguished for his ability to use rhetoric in front of the masses, and in mass media. Like many authors and penman, President Kennedy implemented huge doses of rhetorical strategies in his speech, focusing on the appeals of Aristotle: ethos, logos and pathos. Ethos is used to convince the audience of the author’s credibility, logos is an appeal through the use of logic and reasoning, while pathos is an emotional appeal (Gayle et al). JFK applied all these rhetorical appeals

One of the most influential presidents in United States history, John F. Kennedy was a brilliant politician and public speaker. In his inaugural address, he sparked hope around the world by discussing the hardships faced by all of society in the present time and then leaving them with a message of freedom, power, and hope. This measure of impact is not achieved easily; Kennedy masterfully utilized the art of rhetoric to emphasize his message and win the hearts of his people. In the middle of the speech, he discusses the dangers of the modern world and his drive toward international peace and cooperation. These messages are stressed through his use of charismatic language to signify his vision of a new and better world.

Despite nearly one hundred years passing since the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in Southern States were still faced with the most distinct forms of racism. The so-called “Jim Crow” laws that were present in United States at the time, served to segregate blacks and whites from all aspects of public life, including schools, public transport and juries. Often faced with extreme right-wing terrorist groups such as the white supremacist Klu Klux Klan, many among the African American community chose to live in a society of oppression that to actively campaign for equal rights for all humans regardless of the colour of their skin. It wasn’t until the 1950’s and 60’s that the people attempted to challenge the established order by engaging in influential protest movements with the help of key activist groups and their leaders. In particular, one key example of a powerful protest campaign was that which occurred in 1965 in Selma, a small town in Alabama. Here, the African American community united in an effort to ensure that all citizens were equal before the law in regards to their ability to register to vote. Their work in banding together and marching from Selma to the state capital Montgomery, was vastly important to both the Civil Rights Movement as a whole, as well as the assurance of the Black vote within the United States. Consequently, this essay seeks to emphasize just how influential this act of protest was to the movement as a whole, whilst analysing the

President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered on the most famous and fascinating speeches in American history on March 15 1965. The speech was inspired over the situation that occurred in Selma, Alabama one week earlier. African Americans were protesting over voting rights, as due to manipulation of the voting system by whites. The purpose of President Johnson’s speech was to convince Congress and Americans to pass his bill on voting reformation. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s speech is rhetorically effective, by using strategies such as kairos, pathos, logos and ethos.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) addressed the nation in a “fireside” chat on December 29, 1940 called “The Arsenal of Democracy” ("Franklin Delano"). It was one of twenty-eight fireside chats that Roosevelt would eventually give, but it would become known as one of his best speeches (Roosevelt xi). In this chat he again used the radio to talk to Americans in their homes, where it felt relaxed and informal, despite addressing a serious issue that our nation faced (Roosevelt xi). Roosevelt wanted to tell the people of the United States about the threat caused by the Axis powers’ assault on Great Britain. He felt that America had a responsibility to help Britain and in doing so maintain our national security. President Roosevelt took a strong stance on the need to support Britain and in his speech laid out a plan to build an “arsenal of democracy” in the United States that would protect our country as well as our allies ("Franklin Delano").

Equal rights was what Lyndon B. Johnson spoke of in his letter to the speaker, the president and members of Congress. Along with his powerful message on equality, with his letter, came excellent rhetorical strategies that worked wonders when it came to captivating the reader. The way his first-person point of view explained his overall opinion on the subject could be capable of persuading his readers to feel the same way he once did. In addition to point of view, his use of process analysis may seem subtle to some , however, in reality, it is used perfectly as to subconsciously invade the reader’s thoughts. Lastly, the author’s style plays an important part in his literature because it separates his work from ny other.

On snowy, freezing cold January morning in 1961, five hundred thousand people lined Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. The temperature was only twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit and eight inches of snow blanketed the ground in the American capitol that morning, causing even more traffic than usual, but that didn’t stop these hundreds of thousands of people from attending John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s inauguration ceremony. Little did they know, they would be hearing one of the most famous and memorable speeches of all time. Out of all forty five presidents, the inaugural address that American citizens would remember more than all the rest was that of John F. Kennedy. But what made it so memorable? After all, each president has given at least one, sometimes even two or more, inaugural address. Kennedy’s speech was neither the most elaborate nor the longest; it had one thousand three hundred and sixty four words and took thirteen minutes and fifty five seconds to read and it used relatively simple language. The importance of the address laid not in the length or the intricacy, but in the theme and the rhetoric. With figurative language, themes of unity and freedom, and appeal to Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, Kennedy’s address became not only one of the most memorable inaugural addresses, but one of the most memorable speeches of all time.

Speaker Lyndon B. Johnson in his speech, we shall overcome, emphasizes the Civil Rights Movement problem as not one group of people but America as a whole. Johnson’s purpose is to persuade America that this is the nation’s problem. He adopts a persuasive tone in order to support that there is a problem throughout the country. Johnson uses alliteration to prove what he is going to be speaking about and for what he is speaking saying, “I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy.” This device is important in the fact that it draws in the audience by explaining what he is going to be speaking about.

In 1965, the United States of America was almost in chaos due to the Civil Rights Movement, and its often violent responses. However, on March 15 of that year, President Lyndon Baines Johnson spoke to the members of Congress about the importance of Civil Rights to the principles of the Constitution and the values of this country. Johnson also briefly spoke of the bill he planned to present in the coming week. This bill would ensure that African Americans can freely exercise their Constitutional right to vote. The speech, called “We Shall Overcome,” was not only very effective with its use of ethos, logos, and pathos, but was also very successful in its overall purpose, an argument that no American citizen should be denied their rights due to the color of their skin.

“We shall overcome” a remarkable speech delivered by Lyndon B. Johnson on 15 March 1965 at Washington DC. President Lyndon believes that he really needs to deliver the speech in order to calm the public that government are working to overcome race discrimination especially in voting