Rhetorical Analysis Of John F Kennedy's Inaugural Address

The Inaugural Address made by the president is a momentous speech given to the American public in order to stimulate buoyancy and to rouse the American society to action. John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural address used an expansive use of rhetorical devices to achieve the goals of his speech. John F Kennedy uses strong diction, syntax, pathos, Anaphora, and rhetorical questions among many other strategies to captivate the listener’s attention and to display what his presidency will undertake.
He starts with classifying who he is speaking to and ensues by using short paragraphs to keep his listeners attentive. These small paragraphs let Kennedy make all of his notions, but certainly not drop the attention of his listeners. Kennedy uses a mention to the Revolutionary War, when America acquired its liberty from England, to demonstrate that his presidency will be a celebration of freedom and modification. He often used words that are intellectual to lure his listeners in. The words mentioned include: freedom, poverty, devotion, loyalty, and sacrifice. Kennedy recognizes that these words relate to the communal people that create America and used them to his advantage. These words established the tone of his speech as solemn.

For example in paragraph 4 he states “Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this country, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage – and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which the nation has always been committed…” (p.4). He furthermore wants other nations to know, using parallelism, that America is willing “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, [and] oppose any foe” (p.5) to guarantee its