Caitlin Mayo
Mrs. Robinson
Honors English III
September 16, 2007
John F. Kennedy’s Persuasive Techniques
John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address is of great importance to the American people. The speech incorporates the majority values and views of our society. Kennedy persuaded the people of his lifetime to join his side and support him through the struggles of the country. Kennedy reiterated flattering of the audience, repeated words that unify the people, and created an outlook on the situation as there being no other reasonable choice other than his own. By strategically planning out his speech, Kennedy was able to effectively sway the reader to agree with his standings on immensely important issues.
Serving as the president of the United States, Kennedy’s role was to inform the people while still obtaining their support. Attempting to fulfill his duty was evident in the text. Throughout the speech, Kennedy repeatedly commends his audience and shows that he thinks very highly of the American people. Kennedy stated, “For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty…”. When he said this, he was telling the people that he knew they were capable of changing the world. The recognition and flattering evoked positive feelings from his audience and set up a positive persona for him. Using this technique is strong and is popular in other significant speeches found in American history. While questions were arising about fighting the British the same flattering was used to gain support of those that wanted to rise against the mother country.
Another aspect that relates Kennedy’s speech and other historical texts is his persuasive purpose of bringing the people together. Similar to the Declaration of Independence, Kennedy’s speech emphasized the unification of the country through the use of parallelism. Kennedy excessively uses the word, “we” in his speech to the people. The clever repetition reinforces the idea of America being a country of unified people and brings out the idea that we stand together and you are not alone.
Kennedy’s word choice in voicing his position on the issues at hand put the audience in a situation where it was difficult to disagree. Kennedy stated, “United, there is little we cannot do in a host of co-operative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do, for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder”. The importance of coming together became tremendously important when Kennedy brought to the audience’s attention that getting the job done separated would be almost impossible. Kennedy also put the people in a position where disagreeing with him would seem unpatriotic, “In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe”. Kennedy used words like, “national loyalty”, in order for opposing his views would be looked down upon. American soldiers that have died in previous times of fighting are constantly seen in a commendable light. When Kennedy brought up the “graves” (a word with strong connotation) of the stood up to the plate, the people of our country felt the need to follow in their footsteps and fulfill their role as citizens of this country.
Kennedy’s intelligent tactics enabled him to gain control. Obtaining the support of the audience through unrelenting compliments, unifying the audience and bringing the together for the cause, and carefully choosing effective words all assisted him enormously and led to the vast support of the American people.
I chose to edit my essay on Kennedy’s speech because I felt that the mistakes that I made were careless and easy to find. I did several things to revise my essay: I rewrote my thesis, in order to clearly state the topics that I planned on addressing in my essay; I included more quotes, to better support my arguments about the speech; I changed one of my main points in my thesis statement and rewrote one of my paragraphs, in order to follow the prompt more accurately; and I added more to my conclusion paragraph, to better summarize my essay.
