In answering the first research question of what were the differences between Mr. Trump’s and JFK’s usage of modes of persuasion? I would like to propose that for Trump’s application of logos, ethos, and pathos, there are 6 logos applied, 17 ethos used, and 35 pathos presented in his inaugural speech compared to JFK’s inaugural address, there are 13 logos, 28 ethos, and 14 pathos. It is evident that Trump is good at applying pathos to create a favorable emotional affection from the audience toward the objective of the theme of his speech, make America great again.
It is doubtless that there are various ways to achieve the emotional reaction of the audience, Trump still applied the way as what he did during his running of presidential campaign that was to “make the opposite”, and ‘make the promise he can’t keep’, so it can be encompassed as his main theme of arousing feelings. The importance of arousing feelings and emotions in his delivery of the inaugural speech is a difficult as Aristotle claimed that the “free will is merely an illusion and that most decisions making in using Pathos are taken unconsciously”. Yet this is not uncontested in Trump’s case. JFK tended to use “ethos” along with a bit of pathos and logos to enhance his stance of a president and to encourage the people of the United States to stay strong and stick together in asking what they can do for their own country. It is evident that JFK’s usage of ethos is concerned with his self-portrayal as a president, and the ethos in his speech deals also with the conscious and unconscious demonstration of his character as positive, sincere, and dare to dream big during the delivery of the inaugural address.
It is arguable the most essential of the three modes of persuasion in the modern practice and that is also why JFK’s speech is treated as one of the most influential speech of the century. As for the second question what were the most frequently applied rhetorical devices in each of the inaugural address, and what could we learn from the usage of these rhetorical devices? There are 8 different types of rhetorical devices that Trump applied during his inaugural speech besides the modes of persuasion, and out of 8 different types, there are 18 times of his usage of alliteration, 12 times of application of tricolon, and 10 times of the manipulation of metaphors. The frequently use of alliteration revealed Trump, like previous presidents of United States, would like to impress and mark his words upon the memories of American People with his catchy and easy to remember words. Tricolon along with metaphor were other touches Trump made during his inaugural address that aimed to make his words easy to memorize and not that hard to go into the mind of the audience with adolescent level words used.
There are 15 different types of rhetorical devices involved in JFK’s inaugural speech, and out of which the most frequently used, and the most prominent one is the using of alliteration. The usage of 21 times of alliteration indicates that JFK strives to make his speech to be much easier, catchy, and rhymed to make impress upon the audience. 5.
1 ImplicationIt was perceive that Mr. Trump was self-confident with arrogantly expressive in his inaugural speech with never be uttered words and that was the very cornerstone made him gain the presidency in nowadays society with what Trump’s calling fake. We could also perceive his ego-driven discourse features helped him win over disaffected workers, and other unsatisfied American citizens who considered themselves as victimized by the current corrupt government. Unlike JFK’s sincerity, Trump with his outrageous style wining the heart of the public though the polls after the election indicated that the “unsatisfied” was a common word in most of the Americans, when it came to Trump’s capability in handing the national affair. It could not be denied that unlike other nominees of the presidential campaign, Mr.
Trump’s election of the presidency was decided by general voters who were swayed through his simple and punchy remarks. It could also be perceived that Mr. Trump was tended to portray much of the rest of the world as enemies not only during his presidential campaign but during his delivery of the inaugural speech. The speech he made was quite a shock to most people, for no one ever thought how a businessman without any political background could won the election for the first time. All we could come up with was that above mentioned ego driven and overly expressive of his rhetorical devices were what made Mr. Trump unique, and who personally and unconventionally defined himself in his inaugural address.
