Rhetorical Analysis Of Jfk Speech

President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech on the Efforts that America was making towards space exploration. This speech came at a time when countries were competing to dominate space exploration. Many Americans felt that America was lagging behind other countries like Russia (Douglas). This speech was meant to reassure Americans that the country was still pursuing space exploration. This paper describes President John F. Kennedy’s argument in this speech. It also describes the audience that the president was addressing and how he managed to successfully persuade Americans to support the space exploration adventure by the federal government. Through this speech, the president to persuade the American people to support the effort to send …show more content…
The speech was performed to draw their attention to the current state efforts in the dimension of space exploration. By the time of delivering the speech, Kennedy had been in office for a year. He was elected president at a time when developed countries were advancing their space exploration adventures; The United states was also making efforts though it seemed that other countries were ahead of them except for the satellites, the U.S had not sent any other vessels to the space in the immediate preceding years. President John F. Kennedy had delivered many other speeches to assure Americans on his government’s dedication to ensuring that their welfare is uplifted. He was the most appropriate individual to speak about such matters …show more content…
While talking about the costs, he mentions that the cost of space exploration is slightly less than what Americans spend on cigarettes (American Rhetoric). This will likely amuse the audience since very few people can think about this comparison, especially during an era where smoking was as common as sleeping. One will find it true if they give it a deeper thought. The audience is likely to get amused and stop criticizing the vast expenditure on space exploration. The president also mentions the death of the great British explorer George Mallory (American Rhetoric). Mentioning death will often make human beings grieve. In this case, it will motivate the listeners because even though Mallory died, he was also the first person to do the unthinkable and climb Mt. Everest, the researchers and scientists actively taking part in space exploration are expected to get encouraged. The rest of the audience is expected to trust that federal government on the matter since this demonstrates their readiness to sacrifice. Having a set of well-structured facts and inter-connecting them is a show of wisdom and will help a speaker handle counterarguments. Through his speech, the president based his argument on America. By doing this, the president reduced the chances of getting criticism from a true nationalist. The president mentions that the budget towards space exploration had significantly increased. This was likely to draw criticism. This