Rhetorical Devices In Jfk Inaugural Address

President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address President John F. Kennedy gave his inaugural address to the American public on January 20, 1961. President Kennedy’s inaugural speech is designed to deliver a message of hope and perseverance against foreign threats, specifically the communist Soviet Union, against whom the United States was involved in the Cold War. In his speech, President Kennedy takes the global stage, capitalizing on the emergence of mass media and the ability to reach people on a worldwide scale to deliver a message meant to be heard both home and abroad. Kennedy’s inaugural address uses several different rhetorical devices—i.e., repetition, contrast/antithesis, and metaphorical imagery designed to produce pathos in the audience—to

One of the first things listeners recognize in JFK’s speech is his constant repetition. He continually repeats the phrasing “to those,” “let both,” and “my fellow” to maintain a rhythmic pace to the speech and also to give his words a poetic lilt. JFK also uses antithesis to provide a sense of contrast to his words—such as in lines like “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for you country” (Kennedy, 1961). President Kennedy often uses the word “not” in his speech to set up the antithesis, using contrast to bring about a sense of American spirit and pride. President Kennedy also frequently employs metaphorical imagery to drive his message home to the American public. For example, in the line, “To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery,” Kennedy gives listeners an image of an oppressed foreign populace struggling under communist regimes (an obvious reference to the forthcoming Vietnam conflict). By using metaphorical imagery, Kennedy preys on the fears of the American public at the height of the Cold War. This would give him leverage in public opinion as his agenda would shift to combating communism, particularly against Fidel Castro and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis the following