Rhetorical Analysis Of Jfk Speech

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On September 12, 1962 John F. Kennedy gave a speech in hopes that he could gain the support of the audience concerning the new project of launching people onto the moon. Kennedy uses anecdotes, moral lessons, and looks through a historic lens to gain support for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s program. John F. Kennedy used an anecdote on the history of humans. He explained how far the human race had come. He started giving a lot of reasoning as to why humans should be launched to the moon. He states that "This country was conquered by those who moved forward—and so will space." He seemed to have mentioned this so that the audience would understand that space is a big step to take in human history, but in the past there have …show more content…

Kennedy also used moral lessons to prove his point and give the audience something to think about, but also to sway the audience into agreeing with his given point. John said, "I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours." Here he is being persuasive by saying that humans have already committed terrible mistakes in the past and that they shall refrain from doing them again. He also states that space can be peacefully explored without having a war among others. John F. Kennedy is using human history to say that we have come so far to stop now, and that we should continue exploring. He also mentioned that "The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time". Although he is saying that we should all support the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's program, they are still going to move forward with or without the support of people. He now started using logic saying will you stay behind or move forward as we go on to do history.Overall he used past tense, present, and future tense to his own advantage in order to captivate the audience and receive full

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