What Is The Ethos In John F Kennedy's Inaugural Address

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In Kennedy's speech, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy speaks to nation’s largest steel companies after they increased the steel prices by 3.5 percent. Kennedy is considerate towards economic recession, so he persuades the companies to reduce the prices of steel back to the original cost for stable prices and wages. During this time period of the 1960s, the economy was fluctuating between the wages and the cost for items, so by maintaining the cost of steel, this sacrifice the profits for the steel companies but lowering the cost will benefit the economic distress. President Kennedy wants the steel companies to feel ashamed and guilty through the usage of anaphora, ethos, and pathos in order to accommodate to the prices American citizens deserve. …show more content…
The American citizens were affected the most and sees it as a “wholly unjustifiable...irresponsible defiance of the public interest.” (Kennedy 4-5) The president includes the thoughts of citizens’ thoughts in the beginning of his speech indicating that he is giving this speech for his people, which creates the sense of best interest with the usage of ethos. Kennedy puts the people for because that is his job, and he finds value in the Americans’ voices since they are not often very powerful compared to the president’s. Also, the words “unjustifiable” and “irresponsible” produce an insulting tone with the sense of guilt using pathos to the steel company owners for not thinking about their consumers first. With these words, this persuades the owners to feel more sympathy for their actions and reduce the prices back to the original price of the steel. Furthermore, the president repeatedly says “when we are” emphasizing the actions the American citizens do everyday. These fellow citizens work day and night, so the steel companies should appreciate and honor what the people do. With Kennedy using anaphora, it clearly shows the endless work the American citizens. As a result, the citizens deserve low costs for all their hard work and sacrifices they do