During the height of the Cold War and a time when fear and uncertainty was prevalent across the nation, a new leader, thirty-fifth president John F. Kennedy, used his inaugural address to summon a sense of courage and offer his vision for a better America through the use of compassionate diction, allusions, and metaphors. With the course of his speech, he addresses our common enemy of communism, how we should counter this threat, and his message of hope for the future. He begins his speech with an allusion to the American Revolution. Kennedy juxtaposes America now with America in the seventeen hundreds to show that technological advances have made the world a dangerous place. Despite this challenge, Kennedy uses an appeal to ethics to show
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Kennedy applies that by empowering other nations, we can create a global sense of unity. By applying pathos, Kennedy convinces his audience that science can bring great discoveries despite the dangerous weapons that he mentioned earlier. He quotes, “Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce” to cite examples of how we are only scratching the surface of what this new technology can enable us to do (Kennedy Paragraph 18). When Kennedy states: “For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life”, it is particularly powerful because it stresses the fact that we have a choice as society: we can continue the arms race and risk destroying each other or we can unite as one people and live in harmony regardless of beliefs (Kennedy Paragraph 3). Another powerful use of pathos is Kennedy’s statement, “Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring the problems that divide us” (citation). By calling for unity and setting our problems aside, Kennedy is appealing to the audience’s emotions by making them feel confident that issues can be resolved no matter how large they may seem. In order to focus on the importance of Americans themselves and the importance of the military, Kennedy states, “In your hands, my
Kennedy applies that by empowering other nations, we can create a global sense of unity. By applying pathos, Kennedy convinces his audience that science can bring great discoveries despite the dangerous weapons that he mentioned earlier. He quotes, “Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce” to cite examples of how we are only scratching the surface of what this new technology can enable us to do (Kennedy Paragraph 18). When Kennedy states: “For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life”, it is particularly powerful because it stresses the fact that we have a choice as society: we can continue the arms race and risk destroying each other or we can unite as one people and live in harmony regardless of beliefs (Kennedy Paragraph 3). Another powerful use of pathos is Kennedy’s statement, “Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring the problems that divide us” (citation). By calling for unity and setting our problems aside, Kennedy is appealing to the audience’s emotions by making them feel confident that issues can be resolved no matter how large they may seem. In order to focus on the importance of Americans themselves and the importance of the military, Kennedy states, “In your hands, my