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Rhetorical Analysis Of Kennedy's Inaugural Address

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Rhetorical Analysis Of Kennedy's Inaugural Address
As one of the youngest American presidents ever to be elected, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered an eloquently crafted inaugural address to millions of Americans and people of the world when he took office in 1961. Through the use of the artistic tropes of interpersonal diction and the felicitous scheme of cumulative sentences, Kennedy effectively creates a sense of unity to incentivize Americans into serving their country as well as to reassure the nation and the world of America’s grand potential. By using inclusive pronouns and implying a common ground with the majority, Kennedy establishes ethos with the nation as he has recently been elected into office. To reassure the Unites States that he is competent and knowledgeable …show more content…
Kennedy aspires to represent a glorious nation, but to obtain such status, Americans must ask themselves if they are capable to “forge against . . . enemies a grand and global alliance . . . that can assure a more fruitful life more mankind” (54). The use of cumulative sentences supplements Kennedy’s affirmative request for international unity as he adds rationale to support his vision at the beginning of the composed structure. His confident and assertive tone emphasizes his plea for action due to the fact that he shifts from passively questioning Americans’ ability to requesting Americans to join the historical movement. Kennedy asserts a cumulative sentence as he describes America’s history in letting “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” whom are “proud … and unwilling to … permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed . . . at home and around the world” (52). To evoke optimism, Kennedy continues to state what America upholds as he genuinely expresses his patriotism. The well-turned syntax presented in Kennedy’s inaugural address is declamatory as he gracefully incorporates his mission in an arrangement made facile to
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