Rhetorical analysis essay example

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF

KENNEDY MOON SPEECH

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Running Head: Rhetorical Analysis Of Kennedy Moon Speech

Table of Contents

Introduction 3 ...................................................................................................

Audience 4 ......................................................................................................

Ethos 4 ...........................................................................................................

Pathos/ Logos 6 .................................................................................................

Conclusion 7 ....................................................................................................

Works Cited 9...................................................................................................

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Introduction

The United States occupies leading position in providing this world with the latest discoveries

and inventions. In his speech, John F. Kennedy addresses to his audience which includes a vast

majority of government officials, congressmen, scientists and other students and faculty

members of the university. Kennedy appeals his audience to understand how the United States of

America had been able to achieve great success in the fields of science and technology and why

the nation needs to maintain this pace in order to maintain this leadership position in the space.

On the September 12th, 1962 at the Rice University at Houston, Texas President John F Kennedy

gave the speech that played a major role in shaping the efforts of United States of America in the

space and technology field, his speech is considered to be a mark on start of a new era of

exploration and innovation in outer space.

This speech addressed its audience to explain them that the budget that was spend on air and

space exploration had been tripled. The reason why the budget increased so rapidly was due to

the fact that the United States of America was having a race against the Soviet Union in respect

of the technological advancements and from the conditions at that time it was looking that the

Soviet Union was winning this race because it was a Russian who became the first person who

entered the space, this resulted in a competition for supremacy in technological fields like space.

Therefore the President John F Kennedy sets a target of reaching the moon and he says that it

should be an American who will makes a first visit to the moon.

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The overall rhetoric or appeal of this speech seems likely high because the President John F

Kennedy was able to persuade the audience to feel the emotions of patriotism and that the

situation demanded for some action to be taken at that point.

Audience

The primary audience now is the congressman and the government officials who will be passing

the bill regarding the increase in budget for space exploration programs and the way in which

president explained the need of competition for the American would have surely influenced these

people in developing a positive response for this bill.

The remaining audience that was available in the stadium are the professors and student of the

University of Rice in Houston. This group of audience is much more influenced by the speech of

the President John F Kennedy because of his ethos he had and even before the president started

his speech these people already believed that the speaker is a knowledgeable person and

therefore are surely influenced.

Ethos

President John F Kennedy is a well reputed congressman and person. He has been honored with

several medals from the government. The president has a high rating of public approval during

his tenure. His tenure was after the Second World War and he has been considered as the most

popular public figure after the Second World War. The approval ratings of the president is

enough to show the credibility of the president during the speech.

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The president increased his credibility by saying “In the last 24 hours we have seen facilities now

being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man's history”, this statement of

the president shows that he is an informed person regarding the subject he is speaking at.

The NASA is one of the agencies of USA which is under the leadership of the president and to

become a president, one must have vast knowledge of these departments and agencies therefore

all these factors add power to the arguments and statements set forth by the president.

The most attractive appeal by the president in his speech was to show to the audience that the

United States of America is a nation of patriots and all thorough the speech the president defines

United States of America as an example for nation of free men and women while portraying the

Soviet Union as the nation facing tyranny in the following quote;

He quotes “Within these last 19 months at least 45 satellites have circled the earth. Some 40

of them were "made in the United States of America" and they were far more sophisticated

and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet

Union.”

In addition to this, the speaker used words like “exploit” or “head-start” to define the rule of

Soviet Union to depict the image of an enemy against the freedom of United States. This allows

the president to appeal to the American audience who are having patriotism feeling increased for

their country, which drastically increases the support for the president in his speech (Vincent A.

Manzo, 2011).

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Pathos/ Logos

The president tries to develop a sense of urgency by quoting that “now if America's new

spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight

tonight.” The president says this although US has still not managed to send a man to even the

space where as the president stated that we should be the first to go onto the moon.

The urgency, created by the president, fires the emotion of patriotism in the audience and they

provide more support for the program to outrun the Soviet Union in this competition. The above

statement also shows the great deal of confidence in the Unites States, this confidence in the

nation allow the audience to let go the previous failures seen by the nation and focus on the

target that is waiting ahead (Wall, 2012).

The other feelings that the speaker tries to engage in his audience are the feeling of adventure or

excitement, as it can be seen in his quote that is following “Many years ago the great British

explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to

climb it. He said, "Because it is there."”, the speaker here make use of the sayings of a British

explorer to excite his audience and pump some adventure in them.

Aim of the quote is to explain the concept of challenges to the audience that when a challenge

arises they must try to overcome it. The president was able to engage the audience in this

adventure as the audience seems overwhelmed after this saying and the president ended his

speech with his final words.

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Logical arguments have also been used by the president John F Kennedy to convince his

audience which includes the congressman and the general public. He tries to explain that the high

costs of research, that are required to develop new technologies which will allow them to reach

the moon, will provide new benefits to the nation and he also gives several examples of the

benefits of the space programs that provides the nation with different advantages.

He quotes “The space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already created a great

number of new companies, and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries

are generating new demands in investment and skilled personnel, and this city and this

State, and this region, will share greatly in this growth”.

The president has referred to some of the benefits that were received due to some previous

voyages that the American had made, and then the president explains that the future voyages will

also be able to reap similar benefits and perhaps even more.

Conclusion

The speech given by the President John F Kennedy, regarding the space exploration program or

the plans for journey to the moon, was made to the congressman for passing the bill on

increasing budget for these space exploration program. This speech makes an excellent use of the

rhetorical appeals to influence the audience.

The declaration that has been made in the statement carries a lot of importance as the American

president was about to officially start a competition with the Soviet Union, although the race was

already on but not officially. But the fact that John F Kennedy is an extremely successful and

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popular president provided his wider audience, which included congressman and the general

public of the United States of America, to be more inclined and influenced by his speech

(Podelco, 2016).

The president increase his efficiency of influencing his audience by appealing to the patriotic

feeling of the audience and showing the competition of space exploration between Soviet Union

and United States of America as a battle between two nations, one having tyrannical ideals which

is Soviet Union against a nation which has a very virtuous determinations.

The president demonstrates high confidence in the abilities of nation of United States of America

to send a human being on to the moon and allow him to get back safely to the earth, which shows

that the president certainly made strong appeals to emotional side of the audience.

At the end, the president tries to justify the increased cost, which will be required to finance

these space explorations, by explaining the future benefits that can be gained by these

exploration and the current benefits that these space voyages have reaped which includes

weather forecasting, flood warnings and etc. this shows the logical explanations given by the

president to proof that these space exploration programs will add value to the nation’s wealth and

increase prosperity.

The president efficiently use all the rhetorical appeals to successfully convince the congressman

to provide finances for building a spaceship and sending a man to the moon on this spaceships.

This speech is considered highly successful because later on the congress passed the bill for

increasing the budget and later on America was actually able to build a spaceship that went on to

the moon and the first human being that stepped on the moon was an American. This successful

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mission allowed the United States of America to regain its leadership position in the space

exploration and also achieve world domination.

Works Cited

Podelco, G. (2016, april 8). Kennedy's Famous 'Moon' Speech Still Stirs. Retrieved from http://

www.rferl.org/: http://www.rferl.org/content/kennedy-moon-speech-rice-university-50th-

anniversary/24706222.html

Vincent A. Manzo, L. M. (2011). Toward a Theory of Spacepower: Selected Essays.

Wall, M. (2012, 9 12). JFK's 'Moon Speech' Still Resonates 50 Years Later. Retrieved from

www.space.com: http://www.space.com/17547-jfk-moon-speech-50years-

anniversary.html

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Rhetorical analysis essay example