Inaugural Address of Barack Obama as well as John Fitzgerald Kennedy is powerful, highly infectious and is considered a classic speech. There are some similarities in them, either in propose or the usage of rhetorical device. Firstly, the ideas delivered mainly focus on the current situation, and inspiration of American dreams. Being confronted with the Cold War, in his address what Kennedy wants to deliver is to make the whole world know its policy, let all the nations understand its choice, that is, America will take the significant task to bring the freedom back, the freedom of its own nation, the freedom of the world. He believes and he wants all the people to believe that America will finally take the role of leading the world into a bright future, with the help of its incomparable democratic tradition, its progresses in science and technology and military affairs and its people’s hard efforts.
Speech analysis for JFK Mr. John Fitzgerald Kennedy is credited to be one of America's greatest speakers. When I was asked to choose a speech to do an analysis on, I choose Kennedy's inaugural address. I choose this because it is one of the most recognized speeches in American history. There are many sources that have placed his address as second behind Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream." President Kennedy utilized many tools that are typically used in rhetorical or persuasive writing.
However, Kennedy effectively uses emotional language to make his audience feel involved in his goals as President. Kennedy makes the task of bringing peace and prosperity to the world not only a personal objective, but also one of the American people. By telling the audience to "Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for country," the audience feels personally responsible for making the world a better place in which to live. Aside from instilling a feeling of responsibility in his audience, the most notable aspect of Kennedy's address is his ability to use language for the purpose of stirring a sense of pride in the American people. During his address the President constantly uses images of freedom and liberty as he reminds his listeners that they are, "The heirs of that first revolution."
Thirty-fifth President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, in his inaugural address, expresses the need to unite in order to gain world peace. Because Kennedy gave this speech during his inauguration, he inspires an entire audience around the world, instead of just in America. Kennedy’s purpose is to begin making a better America, to in turn make a better World. He adopts an inspirational tone in order to recruit the citizens of the world to help him. Kennedy begins his speech by stating that we, as the United States are willing to help any friend or indifferent group in the pursuit of liberty.
These devices and strategies being used result in highly persuasive, motivational, and emotional words and ideas which produce an extremely powerful speech. The ethos contribution of Henry's address expresses how passionate he is when discussing his country. Patrick Henry states, “No man thinks more highly than I do of patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed this house.” When Henry asserts his devotion through this quote, he is exhibiting, to the House as well as others, his moral beliefs that establish his competence of the situation while gaining the trust of the people. Another example of ethos would be when Patrick Henry says, “...but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.” This quote is the most significant in entire speech because so much allegiance is being proliferated by just these few words. Henry is using parallelism to declare his belief of supporting his country and fighting for its people.
President Obama had to use the Epideictic Style because it is required in formal events such as openings, closings anniversaries, political occasions and it can deal with everything from excellence to shame. The President's style could be also described as sociopragmatic since as we discussed in class sociopragmatic is when using the words without offending people and Mr. Obama was succesful in doing that. Barack Obama's Inagural Address tried to show honesty, confidence, optimish, power and also offering help to the world. In paragraph 1 and 2 he thanked Mr. Bush and showed respect to him regardless of the fact that he does not agree with him. By thanking Mr. Bush he shows that he will show respect to every single American.
Third is logos, the act of persuading by providing the audience with logic of the author's arguments. Every aspect of rhetorical appeals was shown in Senator Barack Obama's speech. In the speech, Obama uses these appeals to persuade his audience that we, as Americans, need to come together as a union to solve the problems of our society. Obama begins his speech by reciting the first line of the United States Constitution, "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union" (647). Through the use of the United States Constitution, Obama shows his credibility to write the speech and for the nation to trust him and realize the importance of his speech.
Our military is powerful, and it is prepared.” He underscores that America is strong and powerful and that they are not afraid of the future because they can and will handle it. In addition, he also warns the terrorist about an eventually war with the same quote. The US is ready for war in any minutes, and they want to fight for peace and security and win the war against terrorism. The speech bears the mark of pathos in particular. In the first part of the speech, Bush keeps mention the victims and theirs family and friend.
He uses many rhetorical strategies in this famous speech in order to deliver his message loud and clear. Various of these were his use of antithesis and parallelism, hortative and imperative sentences as well as anaphora. The use of antithesis and parallelism used various times in his speech to give strength and call attention to specified persons with his words, for instance “To those old allies” ; “To those new allies” ; “We shall support any friend, oppose any foe” ( for the preservation of liberty) and the most famous “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” the use of this strategy sets a balance and contrast by enhancing two opposites sides and the parallelism adds a more rhythmic structure. In addition, Kennedy also uses hortative and imperative sentences structure many times because these are sentences that urge or call everyone to take action. The phrases “let us”, “let both sides” in the first part of his speech with the purpose of saying that all should unify with him to take the action
The "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most influential speeches ever. Martin Luther used different parts of the English language to enhance the meaning of his speech and bring out the details. The different rhetorical devices, allusions to historic documents, and metaphors seemed to have brought about the emotions that King was trying to arouse in his listeners. This helped him influence his listeners towards wanting equality for all and changing what was happening in the present so they didn't repeat things in the past The very title of his speech was probably taken from his use of anaphora which was present throughout his speech. "I have a dream that one day the nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed… that all men are created equal."