In 1980 Ted Kennedy, John Kennedy’s brother, spoke at the Democratic National Convention. According to History.com, Kennedy had just recently left the race for the Democratic Primary against incumbent President Jimmy Carter. With Carter running for reelection, the Democratic Party had a chance to have strong stability in the White House. Democrats faced a strong Republican Governor Ronald Reagan, which made Kennedy’s speech very important for unifying Democrats and their shared values. According to HistoryPlace.com, this is the best speech given by Kennedy during his public service, and is seen as a defense of liberal ideals. I believe Mr. Kennedy unifies the Democrats in his speech by presenting how a strong group can rally over other ideologies …show more content…
(The GOP), he also uses ethos (appeal to character and emotion) with his audience, and pulls them together using identification (the identity of the audience with the speaker) as well as defining common values and attitudes. Through these techniques he presents the Democratic Party as thriving and on the path to greatness, and possessing the ability to defeat the Republican candidates. Kennedy practices identification when focusing on his audience. His audience is presumably all Democrats that are most likely high up in the party. He goes off their already existing support and strength. Mr. Kennedy speaks in general terms that strike the audience’s ethos. For example, he calls for action to issues that all Democrats can understand. “Let us pledge that we will never misuse unemployment, high interest rates, and human misery as false weapons against inflation.” (American Rhetoric.com) Unemployment, high interest rates, and inflation are part of the identity of the speaker and audience that give them ammunition to try to defeat the Republicans. Through common attitudes he able is strengthen the group, or pack feeling that he wants his party to have. According to Health insurance.org, values in this speech are still relevant today. Values of National health care are so strong with his audience, it is still being used today. Ted Kennedy taps into similar values when using terms and ideals that unite an identity for his audience. He refers to the Democratic party as the “party of the New Deal”, and the “party of the people.” The party is drawn by values and events such as the groundbreaking New Deal set in place by FDR, and being a party for the best interest of the “people”. The more unified the party is, the more of a chance they have to triumph the Republicans. Ted Kennedy uses strong ethos to identify as Democrats, and create an “us vs. them” mentality against the GOP. At the end of his speech I believe he uses and finds their common values because he creates a base of rhetorical Democratic principles that he believes could lead to victory. Literature Review In Instrumental and Constitutive Rhetoric in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, we read of MLK Jr.’s letter from an outside perspective. The author examines the unique styles of the letter, and the rhetoric based around it. MLK Jr’s rhetoric and ethos hits with a much larger message, and speaks to a larger audience than the clergymen he writes to. (Leff and Utley, 2004, 47) In Ted Kennedy’s speech, the audience is larger than what is implied as well. Ted Kennedy mobilizes his audiences, and pulls them together using Identification to build of his audiences’ already existing support. I believe Ted Kennedy is able to speak on touching a much larger audience through values and topics (ethos) that resonate with his audience. He identifies his audience at the Democratic National Convention, but speaks to appeals to the entire Nation. Ted Kennedy’s speech and Dr. King’s “Letter” have common themes of rhetorical strategies such as using ethos, identification, and persona’s. Helen Constantinides speaks of Aristotle using ethos and we can make a connection that King and Kennedy followed a similar path. “Aristotle’s more general definition of the of the three features of ethos as practical sense, a good character, and wanting the best for others.” (Constantinides, 2001, 61) Kennedy’s ethos is often followed by emotion of having the “right” way of rational vs. the Republicans. In the Kennedy speech, he reaches out in good spirit toting that his party helps the public and the audience seems to relate to this. During this time in political history, parties were starting to become more polarized, so it was important for Kennedy to keep the party more unified and together than ever. Ethos seems to be something that is commonly used, but we seem to forget how it affects the audience. Meagan Parker Brooks says another Civil Rights activist- Fannie Lou Hamer uses her ‘different” type of credibility which helps her ethos towards her audience. (Thompson, 2006, 324) This affects how the African American community, and others on a more broad scale viewed her. “Hamer’s strategic reversal- turning her absence of institutionalized power into the primary source of her rhetorical authority- built upon her ethos as a representative of the country’s most oppressed people by suggesting that those furthest from the center hold valuable insight regarding the national malaise.” (Brooks, 2011, 530) Hamer may not have the name value or power that Kennedy had, but she uses her everyday position to help her. Hamer was able to use her representation of the audience to her favor such as Mr. Kennedy did, and it positively affected them. Hamer was dealing with Civil Rights while Kennedy was dealing with politics, although this is connected by the attitude of helping others. Ted Kennedy uses identification to scope out his audience. Erin F. Doss and Robin E. Jensen get down to the root of identification and use of persona’s that can be directly connected to Kennedy’s speech. “Although it is clear, first, that the persona draws from a representation of the rhetor’s experiences, and, second, that the persona is used to present an alternative vision of society, it is unclear how the rhetoric might create a persuasive balance of discursive distance from and identification with audiences.” (Doss and Jensen, 2013, 484) In his speech, Kennedy flexes the second persona to in the section where he repeatedly states “The same Republicans”, and develops a you/they complex which rallies his audience. With common values in hand, Kennedy is able to overcome threats from Republicans because of strong unity with his audience and connections through persona’s. Edwin Black explores what the second persona is under the surface and beyond the obvious. “We have learned to keep continuously before us the possibility, and in some cases the probability, that the author implied by the discourse is an artificial creation: a persona, but not necessarily a person.” (Black, 1988, 111) Kennedy was the person he was, but his persona appealed to many people Nation wide who were sick of the problems the Country was facing. He was able to make his second persona appeal to many different audiences. He was able to connect with Americans everywhere, and he uses unifying rhetoric to address a bigger problem of a broken economy and inequality. Case Study In the Ted Kennedy speech, the intended audience is the National Democratic Convention although he is actually reaching out to all Democrats or Americans, for that matter.
In the Ted Kennedy Speech, he uses words to appeal to his audience’s ethos such as “friends”. His ethos is centered on the hardworking middle class. He may be speaking at a convention, but he reaches to a much larger audience. Secondary audiences are often who these strong speakers (Ted Kennedy and Dr. King) often reach. I believe the ethos Ted Kennedy is getting at is value based. These values are equality, fairness, and helping everyday people. Something that many people can relate to (the Democratic Party), and hopefully others can be reached as …show more content…
well. In an article by Tiffany Thompson, the author speaks how ethos is made up of topics and values that an audience can relate to. This is an excellent example of how Kennedy fights for his agenda, using rhetoric that is similar his ideas. For example he uses words such as “fair” and “equal” that help him give and edge over doubts from the GOP. Towards the end of the speech, Mr. Kennedy summarizes all of the places he has been, and all the people he has met. “I have listened to young workers out of work, to students without the tuition for college, and to families without the chance to own a home.” He connects with their values and emotions, and is able to find hope in his audience and rallies them from just a convention full of Democrats, to a convention full of Americans. “Yet I have also sensed a yearning for a new hope among the people in every state where I have been.” As I stated in the beginning of this paper, Kennedy demonstrates the path to greatness for the party and the hope that the future holds for the Democrats. I believe this hope of mutual values being spread is what Ted Kennedy thinks can over power the Republicans in the coming election. When reading Alan Gross, I thought of the way the author speaks about audience made me think of the Kennedy speech. Mr. Kennedy appeals to audience’s ethos when talking about the hardships of the average middle class American. “The speaker’s idea of his audience must also include their idea of values, of the preferable.” (Gross, 199, 205) For Kennedy, if he is to set up Jimmy Carter for a victory in reelection he must show the National audience that the Democrats have what it takes to run the Country better than the Republicans. He speaks of initatives and plans that would be renewed or changed, and holds attitudes that he believes all Americans should subscribe to, Democrat or not. Like what was stated earlier, this speech has been hailed as one of the best political speeches ever. He was able to connect on values of hard work and equality, as well as identify on a personal level with who he was speaking to. Something very important to note is that Ted Kennedy never experienced, or lived the life of the people he was referring to in the speech. Kennedy grew up very priviledged, and he did not personally face many of the issues he speaks of. His rhetoric was able to connect with a whole different demographic them himself. Even though the Democrats eventually lost relection to then current California Governor Ronal Reagan, I believe Kennedy being able to connect with an audience with such different backgrounds, was the real achievement. Conclusion During the 1980 Democratic convention, Ted Kennedy was able to connect to his immediate audience (the convention) and also a National audience.
He used ethos to have an emotional appeal to his audience, as well as identifying what the audience finds important. He shows he may not share similar life experiences, but he is able to find common values and attitudes with the audience. Kennedy uses this to set up a unified Democratic party to defeat the Republicans. He is working to put the party on a path to greatness, although the Democrats would lose the election, Ted Kennedy’s ability to connect with the audience was the real winner. This speech matters because Mr. Kennedy had the platform to voice problems that were present in the political and National arena. I believe this was a tremendous speech that used effective rhetoric to connect on a National stage to attempt to defeat an opponent. Ted Kennedy shows that anything can be done through
rhetoric.
A young man sits solemnly at a desk in front of a wall full of books, holding eye contact with the camera for the briefest of moments before lowering his eyes to the papers before him and beginning his speech. The young man is Ted Kennedy, and the speech he is about to share with the camera and with his viewers will come to be known as the Chappaquiddick speech. Following the car crash that claimed the life of Mary Jo Kopechne, and the court cases, the speech was intended to tell Kennedy's side of the story. He wished to explain his actions to the nation and to seek forgiveness from his people. The speech was televised at 7:30 pm on July 25, 1969, broadcast live from Kennedy's father's library, and reached the roughly 96% of American homes with televisions.
John F. Kennedy was the President of the United States from 1961 to 1963. Shortly after taking over in office he gave an inspiring speech during a News Conference held on April 10, 1961, to discuss the inflation of steel prices and the impact it had on the American people.
“Born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage.” (Miss, Daly, Pg.). This show the U.S. people that he really loves this country and really cares about what’s going on and what happens to it in the future. Another way he brings pathos into his speech is by the language/words he uses in his speech. When he is talking he uses a lot of words like “we”, “us”. This makes the U.S. people feel very connected to him and makes the feel like they are a part of it to, it is like they made the decision to vote him president and now they get to help him make his decisions about the future of America. In his address he says “In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course.” (Miss, Daly, Pg.). which again he connects to the people by making them feel involved and by basically saying the future of America is even more in our hands then in his and it really depends on us in how we want America to turn out, and again makes the U.S people feel very patriotic and proud of their country. Overall John F Kennedy was very successful in persuading the U.S. people about their choice by using pathos and by just talking to
Throughout his speech he uses ethos to achieve trust in order to gain Americas belief, the second paragraph emphasizes his approach by putting him in a professors shoes when he says, “I appreciate your president having made me an honorable visiting professor. He also uses ethos when he refers to what William Bradford, an English separatist leader agreeing with his philosophy “all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both enterprised and overcome with answerable courage”. Underlining that with patients and togetherness people could overcome their difficulties. Lastly using ethos Kennedy lists how man has improved their quality of living “man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter”. This quote is a known fact letting the audience understand his knowledge proving his theory that great advances can be made such as sending an aircraft to the moon. With the known prior knowledge he can further gain the audiences trust and reassure them to support NASA with sending the aircraft to the
“If a free society can not help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”(Kennedy, 1961) Statements such as these demonstrate how Kennedy appealed to the citizens by simply using reason. The use of logos in his speech was minimal compared to the use of pathos, and ethos.
Evident throughout his entire address, Kennedy employs a cogent pathos appeal to keep his audience intrigued. This can be demonstrated when Kennedy initially proclaims: “Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans…” who he urges to be “unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of…human rights to which this nation has always been committed…” (Kennedy). Kennedy’s usage of “we” rather than “I” gives the audience a sense that they exist as part of something big, perhaps a family, while portraying Kennedy as a people’s president who desires to be a “person in the crowd.” Throughout his address, Kennedy establishes pathos mainly by appealing to American patriotism, a significant concept during the Cold War period in which Americans needed a jingoistic spirit to succeed. By reminding his audience of their forefathers and instigating parallels between “the first revolution” and the present generation, “born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage,” the president grasps the attention of the audience. He even stresses the value of liberty and this generation’s dedication to the survival of that value to rou...
In conclusion, this speech was structured beautifully. Its use of figurative and expressive language makes it an unforgettable speech. Kennedy does a great job of using pathos, ethos, and logos to reiterate his commitment to the American public as well as discuss expected changes. Given the state of the world at the time of his inauguration, the decision to rely so heavily on pathos and ethos was a wise one which got the job done. His use of the rhetoric triangle effectively conveys Kennedy’s plan for America to not only her citizens, but to the world.
From the beginning, and throughout his speech he used in the most effective way rhetorical tools to support his beliefs. The rhetoric tool such as ethos, pathos and logos. He used ethos used to gives his audience a better understanding of who his character is. For him to establish an effective speech of ethos, Obama had to present himself in a way that will make the audience believe in his beliefs as well. In this speech Obama creates his ethos in many different ways that gives his speech not only credibility but, validity also. Obama does
Two great men who stood their ground and fought for what they believed in gave two incredible speeches in the 1960s that may have changed America forever. These two men had no idea what this country would accomplish after these great addresses. John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther king’s speeches to the nation appeal to emotions, call action to different audiences, and have differing opinions on the nation that make them comparable but not completely different.
Kennedy used this to support his claim and put the nation as a whole to do things together and never be in doubt of their goals and have the common knowledge set in mind. So when you look over to the inaugural speech there is no doubt that the usage of ethos was on point. His morals about religion and doing stuff that led to the right way became very keen. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth and lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.” (Kennedy, 1961)
Since the main reason of his sermon is to inspire rather than educate, Kennedy rarely uses any logical pleads. Yet, Kennedy adequately uses passionate dialect to make the people sense their involvement in what all the President says. Kennedy composes the assignment to bring back tranquility and good-wealth as not only his aim, but of the public as well. With famed verses like, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” Kennedy makes the spectators feel inclined to make an impact in the world they live. Apart from infusing a sense of obligation in the crowd, Kennedy’s greatest element in his speech was the aptitude to arouse a feeling of esteem in the audience. Kennedy constantly uses phrases about freedom and sovereignty to remind the people they still are. “The heirs of that first revolution.” This dialect portrays America as a powerful and patriarch republic that possesses greater philanthropy of all the other nations around the world. Even though much of the address is fervent in tone, Kennedy devotes a large section of his topic to outline his ethos to all inhabitants of the world. JFK introduced the use of ethos at the inception of his address. Kennedy was very young when he came into office, but he was still obliged to act at the same status as former presidents. Attentive to this condition, Kennedy
By delivering his inaugural speech, President Kennedy mentioned not only the American people, but also people from over the world including new states, old allies, and the Soviet Union. He also sought to inspire the nation after a long, divided election; to alleviate the growing fearful of drawn-out cold war, and to bless the hope for peace in the nuclear age. By using the extensive use of rhetorical devices, President successfully completed and fulfilled the goals of his speech. Therefore, after reading his inaugural speech, I strongly want to choose this speech to analysis for my research paper. I will analysis John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech based on the idea of social cohesion about liberty, give evidence and number how this speech has influenced thousands of people based on its eloquence and persuasiveness.
The way logos were used in his speech greatly assured the public that action needed to be taken immediately. He provided both reasoning and logic to better forward his point that a change needed to be made. One area specifically he states, “The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the state in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing high school”. The statistics that John F Kennedy provides seriously strengthen his argument, with logic and statistics to back up his argument it creates a stronger pull. John F. Kennedy also makes the statement “.about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year,” showing the difference in wages between African Americans and Caucasians.... ...
Lots of things were happening in 1960 with John F. Kennedy was to be the president of the United States of America. America is going through a period of where they are scared and worried about what is going on in the world around them. They needed a strong leader to turn them around and get them back on top. John F. Kennedy gave them just what they need to hear with his inauguration address. He spoke of helping others, working together and protecting are freedom at all cost. It was exactly what the citizens of the United States needed to hear at exact moment.
On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy reached out to America and the Cubans with his Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation. During this time, the Cold War had occupied several countries of world. This war resulted from tensions, military and political, between Russia and its allies and America, its allies, and the Western Hemisphere. When President Kennedy gave his speech, Russia had occupied Cuba and began building military bases that contained nuclear warheads and other deadly missiles. People of America saw this as a threat to the freedom of the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere. In a time of great tension and fear, President Kennedy delivered his spectacular and reassuring speech that appealed to the citizens of American in several ways.