Serving as the president of the United States, Kennedy’s role was to inform the people while still obtaining their support. Attempting to fulfill his duty was evident in the text. Throughout the speech, Kennedy repeatedly commends his audience and shows that he thinks very highly of the American people. Kennedy stated, “For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty…”. When he said this, he was telling the people that he knew they were capable of changing the world. The recognition and flattering evoked positive feelings from his audience and set up a positive persona for him. Using this technique is strong and is popular in other significant speeches found in American history. While questions were arising about fighting the British the same flattering was used to gain support of those that wanted to rise against the mother country.
Another aspect that relates Kennedy’s speech and other historical texts is his persuasive purpose of bringing the people together. Similar to the Declaration of Independence, Kennedy’s speech emphasized the unification of the country through the use of parallelism. Kennedy excessively uses the word, “we” in his speech to the people. The clever repetition reinforces the idea of America being a country of unified people and brings out the idea that we stand together and you are not alone.
Kennedy’s word choice in voicing his position on the issues at hand put the audience in a situation where it was difficult to disagree. Kennedy stated, “United, there is little we cannot do in a host of co-operative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do, for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder”. The importance of coming together became tremendously
