John F. Kennedy We choose to go to the moon Context: My speech was spoken by President Kennedy. The context of the speech was that it was made on a hot summer during 1962, outside in the football stadium of Rice University in Houston. President Kennedy made his speech on ‘ we choose to go to the moon’. He did not only spoke to the citizens of United States, but to the whole world. He spokes about making small steps to the moon. Purpose: Throughout the speech, Kennedy was to persuade the audience to agree on the decision of going up to the moon.
He was trying to convince the audience that the good deal of money will result a country’s pride. He also wanted to show the whole world that America was ready to take on the dream of going up to the moon, and they will be the first country to achieve this dream. Structure/Language: The speech begins with President Kennedy standing behind a platform with crowd around him. He thanked a list of people and the principle of Rice University to show respect.
Then, he admitted the fast going scientific manpower by comparing with the rate of population growth. While he gives examples such as ‘ Only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels’ to the audiences of how the world is changing, he connected to the main point of ‘ America’s new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight. ’ This sentence was to give the audience of hope and pride to a big change of their nation.
By appealing to public opinion he was further building a base for America’s journey to the Moon. He spoke about the huge costs that will be used on the space effort, but he made a joke about money used on cigars compared to the costs of going up on to the moon. Throughout the speech, he used lots of metonymy. He talked about how America started industrial revolution and first wave of nuclear power, and then successfully explained by appealing to the pride of Americans how they will again catch the first wave of going up to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard… ” “ Yes, we choose to do these things because they are hard and because they will measure as and the will which is ours. ” By posing the question “ are we willing to? ” he told the whole America, in fact the whole world that America was ready and will be the first country to go up the moon. Video: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v= ouRbkBAOGEw Script: http://www. historyplace. com/speeches/jfk-space. htm
