Metaphors and JFK

Metaphors are a common tool used to compare items, but to also drive a point home and persuade. John F. Kennedy, better known as JFK, was the 35^th President of the United States from 1961 until the fall of 1963. Kennedy was one of the most influential speakers of his time; he roused crowds and gave hope to millions. One of his most notable speeches was his Inaugural Speech in 1961 and was also the first inaugural speech televised in color.  Kennedy’s speech, delivered in under 15 minutes, is laced with metaphors that call for a change in society and how the American people need to join together to be able to move forward.  Through his use of metaphors, Kennedy is able to encourage and persuade his audience to believe that things can and will change while he is president. Kennedy specifically uses metaphors that involve ethos and pathos to help better persuade his audience to believe in the change.

            One of the first metaphors Kennedy uses is “the torch has been passed to a new generation”. In this metaphor, the torch is the tenor and generation acts as the vehicle. This metaphor is being used to convey the idea that the power is being passed on to Kennedy and more or less to the American people. This metaphor is also a very confident statement to make. Kennedy is using this metaphor to show that he is worthy and competent enough to deserve to have the torch passed to him and that with the torch being passed comes change and a new era and establishes a bit of his credibility, or ethos. This metaphor acts as a representation of an ending but also a new beginning. This metaphor is also a call to action. Now that this torch of power has been passed down to a new and younger generation, it’s up to this new generation to rise up and make the changes that Kennedy references, which helps persuade the audience by making them believe they hold power and have a say in the change that occurs.

            The next metaphor that Kennedy states in his speech is “those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside”. Kennedy uses this metaphor to paint a picture to his audience of how he feels about dictatorship. He also uses this metaphor as a warning about people who will stop at nothing to get the power and fame they want, but ultimately warns that selfishness never ends well and they will get eaten by this metaphorical tiger. Kennedy is very basically saying that if governments or people of high ranking in society go along with bad people who do horrible things just to get power that there is a sure punishment waiting for them. There is nothing to prosper from seeking evil by hurting others or sneaking around to accomplish selfish goals. This is done with reference to the tiger. The metaphor with its striking imagery and deadly end, applies a bit of pathos to his speech. He uses the emotion of fear with this metaphor to help persuade his audience, anyone watching the speech on the television around the world

            Next, Kennedy makes the metaphor of “casting off the chains of poverty”. In this metaphor poverty acts as the tenor and chains serves as the vehicle for the metaphor. This strong metaphor creates pathos within the speech, pulling out the sympathetic emotions within his audience. The metaphor also causes emotions like hope for a better and freer tomorrow, but also sorrow for any individual who has had to be tied down with the chains of poverty. Because of the emotions that this metaphor causes, it helps persuade Kennedy’s audience to believe in what he’s saying and be successfully persuaded into believing in the change Kennedy calls for throughout his speech. This metaphor creates a striking image in the mind as well, that poverty and the implications that come along with it are binding, but can be broken; the  image of being so weighed down with the chains of poverty and then finally, finally, being able to break them and be free. This metaphor serves to better aid Kennedy’s need for change during his presidential period and convince his audience that the change is possible and can be liberating, such breaking out of chains.

            The last metaphor that appears in Kennedy’s famous speech is “beachhead of cooperation”. The whole sentence, which helps shed more light on what Kennedy is stating with this metaphor is, “And, if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor not a new balance of power but a new world of law, where the strong are just, and the weak secured, and the peace preserved.” This is actually a metaphor within a metaphor. Suspicion is described as a jungle, that it is an overgrown and place to easily get lost in. The jungle of suspicion is a metaphor for the struggle that is occurring in the government to make these changes. That the government has gotten set in its past ways and now suspicion has arisen because Kennedy wants to change the system to be able to further progress for the nation as a whole. The “beachhead of cooperation” is a metaphor for the other nations. That as nations of the world, they must all get along and cooperate with each other despite the differences that separate them in order to be able to make this change successful. This metaphor brings out the emotion of unity and further persuades to his audience to make the change.

In conclusion, Kennedy successfully uses metaphors to paint pictures for his audience that it is time for a change in the country. He establishes his creditability and is able to pull emotions such as fear, hope, and sympathy from the members of his audience. Kennedy’s overall use of metaphors is variable and successfully used to persuade his audience to believe in him, his ideas, and change for the future.