JFK Speech

• Key techniques?

  Antithetical semantic fields

  Syntactic patterning

  Metaphors

  Chiasmus

  1st person plural
• Purpose?

  To reassure, unite

  To instil hope

  To establish America as a world power

  To establish JFK as leader of America.

  State aims and objectives
• Audiences?

  Washington / America / The World

  Global audience (THE WORLD ) - televised
• Contexts?

  Youngest president, democratic leader (replaced Eisenhower), during the cold war and space race,

  JFK wanted address to be short and clear, focusing on foreign policy

  Calls on the nation to combat 'tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself'
• Voice?

  Pragmatic through acknowledgment of potential threat

  Powerful emotion

  Rhetorical

  Motivational
• Speech conventions:

  carefully crafted, key syntactical patterning = to build gravitas