The late President John F. Kennedy was the United States’ thirty-fifth president. In his inaugural address on January 20th, 1961, he brilliantly provided an outline of his hopes, trepidations, and dreams for freedom in the US and the whole universe at large. The speech inaugural address was delivered at a time where the Cold War was on the minds of the audience, while his campaign had won only on a small margin and a wide range of the citizens were disenchanted by the election’s results (Menand et al., 2014) . Therefore, the president needed a speech with a strategic angle of attack. In the speech, he appealed to the people in the entire continent using pathos, logos, and ethos. The president manipulated ingeniously syntax and diction to organize his thoughts concisely and clearly. This essay is an analysis of President Kennedy’s inaugural speech.
President Kennedy progressed with his speech where he emphasized the need for unity among the Americans to achieve freedom and protect democracy. The president used pathos to explain the point in lines 2-3 where he mentioned that every American generation had been summoned to its national loyalty's testimony. He also used pathos in line 3-4 where he mentioned the graves of American youth answering the call to service across the world, alluding to the involvement of the US in World War Two. He also used alliteration, where every first consonant sound in a sentence was repeated, as well as inversion of words, anastrophe, and antithesis. Two opposing ideas were used in line 5-6 as an illustration that he desired peace although it would be impossible at the time, where he mentioned: "not as a call to bear arms, though we need arms, not as a call to battle, though embattled we are." The message was dedicated not only to Americans but to humanity as a whole. The president applied simple diction in the entire speech. In his words, only twelve had more than two syllables in the first two paragraphs. He spoke in the words of a common man rather than in the words of academia. He used a simple language because the speech was intended for the world as a whole.
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President Kennedy then began implicitly addressing the leaders of other world powers after transmitting a plea for the US to come together under his leadership. He appealed to logos by pointing out that his alliance would benefit all, especially when freedom is under maximum danger. He established logos throughout the address in different analogies, classifications, and maxims. He classified the world into five categories and elaborated his plans to deal with each category (Kennedy, 1963). The president described the spread of communism from Russia to less developed nations using an analogy to describe that its spread would prove futile to individuals who adopt its principles. Kennedy used the facts of the Cold War such as space race, and the arms race to propose potential healing with Russia. He connected with the mostly Christian audience using common phrases or maxims from the Bible.
The president brilliantly combined personification and alliteration in the last paragraph of his speech. He urged the people not to consider what the country would do for them, but to think of what they could achieve together in the struggle for freedom. The antithesis created an assertive tone and informed the world that America was not there to solve its problems. The problems were to be fought in unity and cooperation for mankind to benefit. Kennedy also established ethos in his inaugural address. He told all the protocols observed that his victory was not of a party, but rather a celebration of freedom that symbolized an end and the beginning. He addressed that his victory was not sorely a Democratic Party victory, and expressed that he valued unity over partisanship. He proved himself as a courageous leader later in the speech by demonstrating he does not shrink from the responsibility of protecting the freedom of his people in a time of "maximum danger". He encouraged the Americans to have faith in him because he was focused on leading the nation through difficult times. He finished the speech by developing ethos once again and described himself as an unselfish individual who had the beliefs in a higher power. He acknowledged God as the final judge of human's deeds, and asked him for blessings and help, recognizing that leaders are entitled to perform God’s work on earth.
In conclusion, the late President John F. Kennedy was one of the best motivational speakers of his time. Listening to him would be pleasure based on his incredible use of metaphors, alliteration, and syntaxtricolon. The president clearly elaborated his fears, hopes, and desires for the Americans as well as people in the whole world. He demonstrated mastery in delivering a good speech in a volatile world stage following the Precarious Cold War and election tensions. He designed the speech with a strategic angle of attack. He effectively addressed the unification of his nation by skilfully claiming religious alliance and appealing to the common American patriotism before addressing other world leaders. The president clearly delineated his position regarding foreign policy without specifically calling out any person or nation.
References
Kennedy, J. F. (1963). Inaugural Address: January 20, 1961. J. Pub. L. , 12 , 235.
Menand, L., McKibben, B., Clark, D., Toobin, J., Taladrid, S. and Parker, I. (2014). Anatomy of an Inaugural Address . [online] The New Yorker. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/ask-not-tell-not [Accessed 24 Feb. 2019].
