Rhetorical Analysis Thesis Statement

Abigail Napier

Kaleigh Spooner

Writing 150

4 October 2015

Rhetorical Analysis Thesis Statement

            Fifty-two years after John F. Kennedy gave his speech declaring how his faith would impact his presidency, Mitt Romney gave an extraordinarily similar speech. While both had the same goal of convincing America that their own personal religion would not sway their decisions for the greater good of the nation they took different approaches to achieve this goal.

            Kennedy’s audience was Protestant ministers who were fearful that if Kennedy won the presidency, the Catholic church would hold sway over Kennedy and therefore over the country. He started out with a very effective foil comparing this issue with the other much more pressing issues that plagued the country at that time. He also used repetition of sentence structure to give his arguments strength as well as the motif of “this is the America I believe in” throughout his speech to tie his various arguments together. While he does mention in passing other religions, there isn’t too strong of an argument for how he would relate or interact with them.

            Romney uses a strong chiasmus of “freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom.” This strong rhetorical statement accurately introduces the rest of his speech. Romney may be at an advantage because he is able to allude to Kennedy, but he goes beyond that and alludes to the founding fathers and Lincoln. He also uses repetitions in his individual arguments which gives them strength.

            Both Kennedy and Romney’s speeches had strong points. Kennedy’s speech appeals more strongly to his secondary audience but fails to allude enough to others. Romney appeals strongly to those before him, but his argument would be far less effective to an atheist.