Preview

Rhetorical Analysis Of Senator Robert F. Kennedy's Speech

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
416 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Rhetorical Analysis Of Senator Robert F. Kennedy's Speech
In Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s speech, he is asking the people of America to understand the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. with compassion and love, not with bitterness and hatred. He uses a sympathetic tone to talk about the struggles he knows the people of America are going through, and relates their issues and feelings to himself. One way Kennedy does this is through the use of repetition. Throughout his entire speech, Kennedy recycles numerous words and phrases. For instance, he repeated the word “compassion” three separate times. He does this to counterargue the negative emotions that he knows many Americans are feeling at the time. By urging people to utilize compassion over hatred, he is trying to get those listening to his

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    JFK also uses repetition to persuade the American people. He begins several sections in the middle of his speech with the same phrase, “Let both sides. . .” then uses very strong verbs to call the public to action such as “explore,” “formulate,” “seek,” and “unite.”…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    John F Kennedy delivered one of the finest speeches on January 20, 1961 after being sworn into office. His inauguration speech was so powerful that it captured the entire nation attention, and quotes from it are still remembered by people today. It is one of the finest speeches ever written. It provides a strong appeal to pathos, ethos and logos, and it is because of this that people who never heard the speech can quote lines from it.…

    • 878 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his speech on April 10,1962, John F. Kennedy accentuates the corruption and negligence of United States Steel and other leading steel corporations for raising steel prices that would in turn have an immense, financial-burden impact on everyday Americans. The intended purpose of his writing piece was to chastise and defame the greedy steel corporations as well as obtain support and unification from Americans. Through the use of patriotic diction, hypothetical reasoning, and consistent factual evidence, John F. Kennedy generates a logical and emotional appeal in order to exemplify the urge to resolve the devastating economic and social distress Americans had faced from the recession.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Kennedy's inaugural address he pledges to help the people around the world who "struggle to break the bonds of misery." He wishes to help these people because it is the right thing to do. This shows that there was much poverty around the world at the time. Even the rich needed help; Kennedy said, "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, then it cannot save the few who are rich." Kennedy also wanted to assure the survival and success of liberty. He wanted every nation to know that America would do anything to preserve and spread liberty. In his inaugural address, Kennedy uses the oxymoron "peaceful revolution." He was referring to the peace he wanted to maintain with Mexico. Likewise…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    He uses his ethos to try to get his credibility and political status to overweigh the wrath the public currently feels for him. He also uses multiple fallacies in his speech, saying, “I have made immediate and repeated efforts to save Mary Jo by diving into the strong and murky current, but succeeded in only increasing my state of utter exhaustion and alarm”. To hopefully gain the publics understanding, he twists the truth in his favor stating he attempted to rescue Mary Jo multiple times when in fact, at the time of the accident he only tried to save…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the course of writing this address, John F. Kennedy and Theodore Sorensen, his advisor and…

    • 4686 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I was successful in detecting the purpose of the essay. I also did a good job of finding the literary and rhetorical terms. I struggled a little bit when it came to describing the reason why John F. Kennedy incorporated those rhetorical elements. I basically described the context of the sentence, not really the story as a whole. After finding out the purpose of the story from Mr. Nelsons perspective everything makes a lot more sense.…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Repetition, or the duplication of words, ingrains the idea mentioned into the listener's head. Due to the magnitude of the word use, the listener is reminded of the topic and is left unable to forget the information. At the end of his inaugural speech repetition of the word “fellow” (paragraphs 21, 25, 26) ingrained a sense of equality between Kennedy and the American public. Prior to the speech, citizens were wary of the new president; however, Kennedy was thought to be a trustworthy, honest man following the impressive performance. Furthermore, the repetition of the word “fellow” (paragraphs 21, 25, 26) is an example of ethos. The trust elicited by the speech allows the nation to believe Kennedy’s ideas and support him. After gaining America’s trust, Kennedy used his newly found position to encourage the United States to take…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In a brief word, JFK wisely involved the use of rhetorical devices and appeals within the above excerpts by persuading the audience in an innovating approach using alliteration, antithesis, and pathos. Because of such devices, indeed, influenced the mindset of the addresses Kennedy’s inaugural address turn out to be stronger and inspirational to advocate individuals to eradicate every problem that might affect their success or purpose and life.…

    • 1652 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Kennedy used ethos, pathos, and logos as a foundation for a strong developed speech that would carry-out a formal message. Kennedy sets ethos, ethnical appeal, by putting different people of high class to make his argument strong as he starts his address by “Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens, we observe today not a victory of party, but celebration of freedom, which symbolizes an end as well as a beginning, signifying renewal, as well as change.” He then also establishes logos into different sections. Which he then divides the world into different categories based on the way one lives and what they believe in. Most importantly Kennedy wrapped up his argument up by providing pathos in the appearing of American pride, and other important concepts that will be essential to the success in the Cold…

    • 1733 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    By bringing up the topic of revolution and mentioning all the hardships people have gone through, Kennedy appeals to the American citizens’ sense of nationalism and pride. Another instance where Kennedy applies pathos is when he says, “In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty…Now the trumpet sounds again…--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.” (70). Here, Kennedy says how the course of the country lies with the citizens of America and how they need to cooperate to fight “the common enemies of man”. This makes the citizens feel important and want to actually do something themselves to help. Also, when Kennedy mentions how every generation of Americans have been required to defend against enemies, he, again, appeals to the nationalism and pride of American citizens. The third place where Kennedy appeals to emotion is when he says…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    When electing a president, citizens search for leadership, trust, and security in an individual to lead our nation. During the beginning of the 1960s, many problems had arisen; recovering from a recession, China and the Soviet Union splitting from communism ideology, threats from the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam war beginning, etc. This left the American people perplexed and afraid, in this time we had a newly elected president, John F. Kennedy. Kennedy taking the step to help reassured the people with his speech on the issue of inflation of steel prices on April 11th, 1962. With his charisma and and knowledge, John F. Kennedy used ethos, pathos, and diction to develop his speech and inform the people of his abilities and love for the nation.…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the “Address to the People of Massachusetts on Chappaquiddick” Senator Edward Kennedy attempts to persuade the audience to forgive him and understand that his behavior after this tragic accident is not a part of his character, but just one action of fleeing the scene to which he pleads guilty. He adopts an apologetic tone in order to appeal to the people emotionally and allow the audience to see that he regrets the actions he made.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ever since the establishment of America, great men have instilled wisdom to the future generations. Over the course of various time periods, different men of all backgrounds have come out to speak against the evils and injustices in society. Among these men include Martin Luther King, Jr., a Civil Rights Leader in the 1950s; John Fitzgerald Kennedy, president of the United States during the Cold War; and Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States during the Civil War. All three men have written scores of speeches concentrating on human equality and the rights of individuals. Martin Luther King, Jr., John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and Abraham Lincoln suggest that mankind should live in unity because the cooperation between peoples will help a nation stand strong.…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address is one of the briefest documents in history, it perfectly describes what he plans to do in his time in being president. This speech goes over the period of the Cold War and other matters going on in the world in the early sixties. This was a period in which most Americans were worried about the planet, goals that need to be achieved to ensure the safety of the people of the U.S. and also the new technological advances that were being made. The United States was torn between racism in the 1960’s and Kennedy had to address that in his time in being the president. The Cold War was also at its peak during that time (Bragdon) and the people of the U.S. knew that Kennedy was a young and inexperienced president and were worried about how he was going to lead the nation in times of crisis.…

    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays