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

1789, the following presidents have looked at the preceding presidents’ inaugural speeches for inspiration and ideas on writing style along with different ways to summarize and state future actions. Similarities and differences can be found among any of the inaugural addresses. Some of the inaugural addresses that have been a teaching model for future presidents are: President Abraham Lincoln’s address, President Rutherford B. Hayes’s address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s address, President John F. Kennedy’s address, President Barack Obama’s address, and President Donald Trump’s address.
One of the prominent similarities in each of the inaugural addresses is the use of pathos. Most presidents appeal to pathos in their speeches when he talks about or mention religion. Religion appeals to pathos because many Americans have a faith that they believe in. Therefore, when a president directly addresses religion or uses a faith to provide the reasoning behind a current issue, he gives the people a way to unite through their beliefs and to also sway the favor towards the president if the president makes a statement about one’s religion that citizens could agree with. For example, both President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama concluded their speeches with a brief mention of their faith. As they thanked the people in their addresses, they both asked God to bless the nation’s citizens and the United States of America (Trump 19, Obama 35). Their declarations provided a wave of emotions throughout the country because the presidents were showing that they hoped that God would protect the nation and help them pave the way for a better America. The two presidents are wishing the nation luck for the future and are giving their blessings directly to the people. Their proclamations provide a sense of care and devotion, which are passed on through the speech to the citizens. While some presidents, like Trump and Obama, only appeal to pathos when speaking about religion, other presidents appeal to logos along with pathos. In Rutherford B. Hayes’s address, he mentions religion when quoting the Book of Common Prayer (Hayes 27). Likewise, Abraham Lincoln quotes directly from the Bible to tell the people that God was watching over them and that God directed the issues in the nation and they can’t blame him or anyone else (Lincoln 3). Both Hayes and Lincoln differ from the other presidents because they directly quote prayers or scriptures. This allows them to provide the reasoning behind their appeals to pathos. It gives a sense of logic to the people while still making them feel the emotions in the speech. All presidents talk about religion to make an effect on the nation, but only a few presidents include sources to go with their emotional appeals.
Another similarity in the inaugural speeches is how each president brings the people together and unites the nation while also taking authority as the president.

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

take the same approach to authorization, Obama and Trump stray away from the usual form and create their own style of guidance in their speeches.
One more similarity is the tone that the presidents create throughout their addresses.

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

optimistic and serious. He uses a concerned tone because of his personal situation and allows it to show in his speech.
Each president delivers a speech that is similar, yet different to past presidents. The speeches connect through religion and pathos, unity and authority, and optimistic and serious tones. Even though the addresses are similar in certain ways, they are also different. Each president deviates from the normal style of inaugural speeches and finds a new way to make the address his own while also relating back to the other presidents. Each speech creates a new and unique, yet familiar inaugural address for the nation to hear every four years.