Jfk Inaugural Address Essay

On the day the United States President-elect is sworn into office, he has to give an inaugural address. The inaugural address is the first thing that the president does after taking the oath and is one of the last steps of the transition process. This speech is important because the president can discuss the current issues occurring in the nation at the time and summarize the plans he has to fix the nation’s problems in the future. Every four years, the new president delivers an address that is similar, yet different to the previous presidents. Each of the presidents has his own unique style of writing while also borrowing certain styles from inaugural speeches prior to his own. Ever since George Washington gave the first inaugural speech in

All the presidents use “we”, “our”, and “us” to bring the citizens together and show that they will work with one another to better America. Kennedy is the only president who talks about himself as a citizen by saying “fellow citizens” (Kennedy 28). This is his way of uniting the people and telling them that he is no different than they are because he is just like one of them. The presidents also use the pronoun “I” to show that they will be leading the country to a better future. In the inaugural addresses, the presidents mention how they will be starting their presidencies and that this address is the first step into the next four years. Obama and Roosevelt are similar because they both start their speeches with “I” (Obama 1, Roosevelt 1). Although they start off similarly, Obama differs himself from any other president because the only time he says “I” is at the beginning of his address (Obama 1). Trump also differs himself because, unlike the other presidents who start or say “I” in the first few paragraphs of their speeches, he waits until he is almost halfway through with his speech to talk about himself (Trump 9). He waits to bring himself into the speech so he can address the issues first and unite the people before moving on to discuss the oath he took and the start of his presidency. While most presidents

All the presidents share a serious, yet optimistic tone that provides hope for the future. They establish their tones through the use of short sentences or paragraphs and declarative sentences. They use short sentences to create statements about the issues in the nation. The short sentences take the issues and make them straight to the point so the president can wait until later in the speech to elaborate on his plans for the future. The short sentences build the serious tone because the presidents use them for summarizing or quick statements. The presidents also use declarative sentences to create an optimistic tone. Each president is hopeful for the future and has the “courage and devotion” to make America a better nation (Roosevelt 23). The declarative sentences express the presidents’ love for America and the amount of effort they will put into their jobs for the next four years. All the presidents create the two tones, but Kennedy also builds another tone along with the two. Kennedy has a concerned tone established in his speech because he was the youngest president and had to win over the nation and prove to the citizens that he could do the job. Alike the other presidents, he uses declarative sentences to create his tone and says he will “welcome the responsibility” of the job (Kennedy 26). His concerned tone differs from the other presidents who keep their tones limited to