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Kennedy Inaugural

John F. Kennedy, a senator from Massachusetts, was elected president of the United States in November 1960. He was the candidate of the Democratic Party and he won only by a very narrow margin. He was replacing one of the most popular presidents of the century, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and wanted to use the occasion of his inaugural speech to make a very strong impact. The speech was delivered on January 20, 1961 and made more of an impact than most inaugural addresses do. This essay discusses the ways in which Kennedy made the most of the 13 minutes that it took to deliver his speech. The analysis is conducted following the division of the elements of effective rhetoric described by the philosopher Aristotle: ethos, logos, and pathos. The first section, ethos, discusses Kennedy's background and the circumstances surrounding the speech including the expectations of the people who had elected him and how the public perceived him. The second portion, logos, discusses the content of the speech and the rhetorical means Kennedy used to accomplish the ends he had in mind. The third section, pathos, concentrates on the reception of the speech by an audience that extended far beyond the one immediately present on a very cold day in Washington D.C.

Kennedy won election by the narrowest margin ever up to that time and his defeat of the popular vice-president, Richard Nixon, was accomplished partly because of the influence of television. This was the first election in which television played a primary role and Kennedy's appearance as well as his speaking skills were key to his campaign. Yet, even though the American people had voted for Kennedy, "they didn't really know him" and so "from the moment he was elected Kennedy had to work hard to make an impression" (Beschloss 67). Even his colleagues in the Congress "found it hard to get out of the habit of thinking of him as a distracted, absentee backbencher" (Beschloss 67). In additio...

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Kennedy Inaugural. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 10:43, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1694176.html