Jfk Inaugural Address Rhetorical Analysis

Every four years America elects a new president to run our country, and in January of the next year the new president makes a speech to the American people. Each president takes office at a different time in the country, which requires a different type of speech for the American citizens. When John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, America had been dealing with the Cold War, the Space Race, and the Civil Rights Movement, so America needed a speech the would send hope and strength to themselves and the rest of the world. President Kennedy used pathos, varying modes of writing, and numerous literary devices to send hope and encouragement to the American people, but he also wanted to make sure that message was known by the rest of the world. Kennedy used pathos to encourage and instil fear in the US citizens, so they could make America better than it already was. He starts his essay with the emotional appeal by saying this presidency was an “end as well as a beginning” (Kennedy 2). He also ends his speech by communicating, “[t]he energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world” (Kennedy 25). By his structuring his essay this way, it gives the people hope at the beginning, and it lets that be one of the last things the audience hears. Kennedy does this to primarily to remind the audience that they should have hope, no
The speech often echoes the mood of the country at the time the speech is made. Kennedy decided to use two main elements in his speech; fear and hope. He intended for people to be hopeful for the future, but he also wants people to know they will have to work towards the future. He notes that this will not be easy to achieve, but it is attainable. Now in 2016, we have a new president-elect. Our president-elect’s speech, like Kennedy, will echo the issues of today’s world and today’s