Natalie Kelber 20 February 2013 ENGL 3060 Critical Commentary 4 Introduction: In this critical commentary, I am addressing John F.

Kennedys speech on Civil Rights that was presented on June 11th, 1962 in response to the National Guard to protect African American students at the University of Alabama. Kennedy addresses the main concerns and how it is a legislative issue that should be changed on the floor of Congress and not in the streets. I selected this speech because there are many metaphors and assumptions made throughout the speech that makes it easy to critique it for metaphor criticism. It has economic, political, and cultural factors in the topic of civil rights. Methods: The functions of metaphor criticism are about finding metaphors in a chosen rhetorical artifact. The metaphor has to be dominant in a text. It has to go with the idea of assumptions and could have multiple metaphors in the artifact. Metaphor criticism also has saliency, which is the significance. There are two terms that is involved in metaphor criticism: Tenor is the first term that is considered continuous throughout the artifact. Vehicle, which is the second term that is discontinuous and inconsistent with the issue. There are carryovers to be determined as well. The steps that I took to identify the metaphor in the speech are finding what stands out in the speech? What is a good metaphor that explains the assumptions of the civil rights of African Americans. I gauged saliency in this artifact by trying to distinguish what the assumptions, and significance was versus gauging on motivation. Results and Analysis: My findings to find the metaphor salient is what metaphor stands out in the speech? The metaphor was Kennedy stating that the fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city, North and South, where legal remedies are not at hand,. ( Kennedy, John F. Address on Civil Rights).The whole significance/saliency behind this metaphor is that violence in the streets are leaving people frustrated with fury because Congress isnt doing anything about the common issues. It gives the assumptions that because African Americans dont have the right to vote, get a proper education, or are able to dine in restaurants, that they deserve not to be admitted on a university campus. Kennedy wants Americans to assume that Congress will finally take charge and stop violence in the streets. The other dominant metaphor that stands out is the themes of freedom, equal rights, and voter registration between African- Americans. Discussion: Kennedys speech has many dominant metaphors, but the quote about the fires of frustration that is shown in the streets has the main tenor of the word fires of frustration that describe how violence is played into the assumptions of African- American rights. The vehicle is city, which represents and reflects the frustrations, violence, and protests that is been happening in the streets, which hasnt been

helping the situation of equal rights for African- Americans. The carryover in this metaphor is that the cities in this case, represent that legal forces arent doing anything to fix the problems of African Americans, which are about not being able to get a proper education, get a proper job, and are impacting the lives of their children. The words from cities would be that violence is not the answer to these problems, but it is a legislative issue (Kennedy, John F. Address on Civil Rights). The assumptions that are rooted in the metaphor at hand that impact the actual artifact is that the bonds of injustice and Land of the free should be assumed and dealt with by Congress forming new laws. The other overall assumption is that to help African- Americans have an education and equal rights as an American. In the metaphor in which it states fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city, gives the artifact the impact, in which enforces Congress to act, instead of letting the violence continue on the streets. Also, the thorough understanding of the circumstances of the artifact and information gives you the reasoning behind the metaphor, gives you background information about why there are fires of frustrations burning in the cities and what are the issues behind it. If you didnt know the background information involving fire, burning streets, or where legal remedies are not at hand, you would think maybe this involves economic and political, apart from the cultural aspect of it all. References: "Address on Civil Rights (June 11, 1963)." Miller Center. Rectors and Visitors of the University of Virginia, 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://millercenter.org/president/speeches/detail/3375>. Kennedy, John F. John F. Kennedy Civil Rights Address 11 June 1963 Part 1&2 YouTube Web. 23 March 2008 Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF2pVadZUOU Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkOlCU5aMcM