Jfk Rhetorical Response

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JFK’s appeal to the nation’s steel companies During the early 1960’s the United States were coming out of a recent recession. The economy was finally looking up and the steel industry was doing especially well. They were producing more steel per worker than they had for years. President John F. Kennedy, a strong advocate for stable prices and wages, gave a speech openly criticizing the nation’s largest steel companies for their increase in steel prices and pleaded for the reverse of said rise. In an attempt to achieve his purpose of convincing steel companies to reduce prices, JFK employs the rhetorical devices of anaphora and logos. During the course of his speech, JFK repeatedly used anaphora to help achieve his purpose. He said, “…when we are confronted with grave crisis in Berlin and Southeast Asia, when we are devoting our energies to economic recovery and stability, when we are asking Reservists to leave their homes and families for months on end…” He started each of his statements with “when we are” to show what the nation is actually going through at the moment. He then shows how these would be worsened even further if the steel companies maintained the price increase. JFK also said, “It would make it more difficult for American goods to compete in foreign markets, more difficult to withstand competition from foreign imports, and thus more difficult to improve our balance of payment position, and stem the flow of gold.” He repeatedly started with the phrase “more difficult”. This repetition, incorporated with logos, helped to drive home the point of how much trouble and difficulty this price rise would cause. Anaphora is a very useful and effective rhetorical devices and President Kennedy uses it beautifully in this speech. President Kennedy also used the rhetorical device of logos to connect may of his points and the problems that will
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