Kennedy West Berlin: Ethos, Pathos and Logos
Introduction
Ethos, pathos and logos are rhetorical modes of persuasion. Ethos appeals to the ethics of listener by reflecting the character of the speaker. Pathos appeals to the emotions. And logos appeals to reason or logic (Sproat, Driscoll & Brizee, 2012). Kennedy employed all three modes of rhetoric in his famous West Berlin speech in 1963, when he highlighted the inhumanity of the Wall, the oppression of the Germans under the Soviet system, and the meaning of freedom, as well as in many other ways. This paper will examine these ways to show how Kennedy applied these rhetorical devices in his West Berlin speech in 1963.
Ethos
The appeal to ethics through the reflection of his own character was made by Kennedy when he began making the distinction between right and wrong in his speech. He did it not by identifying specifically what was good and what was bad but rather by intimation and suggestion. For example, he began his speech by framing the issue, the problem, the conflict between “the free world and the Communist world” (Kennedy, 1963) by stating: “There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world” (Kennedy, 1963). His answer? “Let them come to Berlin” (Kennedy, 1963). He phrased the issue in this manner, subtly suggesting the problem without ever coming out and stating it clearly himself, instead letting others and their questions serve as the instruments for highlighting the ethical reason for why the Soviets were wrong in Berlin and wrong in fact in their whole way of thinking: “There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we...
References
Kennedy, J. F. (1963). West Berlin speech. Retrieved from https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/JFK-Speeches/Berlin-W-Germany-Rudolph-Wilde-Platz_19630626.aspx
Sproat, E., Driscoll, D. & Brizee, A. (2012). Aristotle’s rhetorical situation. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/03/
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