Great Speech Critique - Franklin D Roosevelt - Essay Example

Great Speech Critique The speech is made by president elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. The topic was “Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself”. This was his first inaugural address. The speech was directed to the people of United States at the period. The speech marked the first four year term. This was after the 1932 presidential election in which the democrats registered a massive win. The speech was because of challenges that were facing people of the United States at the time. In this period, there were challenges that were affecting people emerging from the great depression. Such challenges included unemployment, poverty, and loss of capital. As a result, the speech was directed to ways of overcoming such challenges and instills hope to the population that it was only for a short period. Moreover, the speech focused on the direction the country was to take in order to overcome the challenges. In the first sentence of the first paragraph, there is a strong use of ethos. The speech relies on of this appeal to capture the attention of the audience. For example, the speech gains credibility when the audience realizes that the speech is from a person that is to assume the presidency. This is seen as the author claims “I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency …” (Roosevelt). The same sentence also captures the use of pathos. The author uses pathetic appeal to develop a common identity. For example, in the sentence the author starts by saying “i am certain my fellow Americans.” This makes the author parts of the challenges and issues that Americans were going through at this period. Hence, the author manages to use common identity as a pathetic appeal. On third paragraph, the author evokes emotions of the audience. This occurs as the author states issues related to fear in the paragraph such as “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror” (Roosevelt). These show the strong appeal to emotions of the audience by use of pathos. The appeals help in gaining support of the audience at such a difficult time. Analysis of the fourth paragraph also highlights author uses of various rhetorical appeals in the speech. One significant appeal is the use of logos. This logical appeal is used to persuade the audience of various challenges the country was going through. The use of this appeal is seen as the author notes the consequences of The Great Depression. They include decreased values of goods, increased taxes, default in payment, decreased trade activities and failure of farmers to get market for their goods. On the other hand, there is use of pathos as a form of appeal in this paragraph. The appeal is seen as the authors notes in the speech that savings of various families of many years is no more. The use of pathos in the form of pathetic appeal helps in capturing the emotions of the audience. Moreover, it helps in painting a grim picture of the effects of that period. Paragraph 5 also depicts the author use of logos. This is seen through an analogy of the problems faced by the ancestors that lived in the country. The author uses the analogy to show the problem the country faced at his time is less compared to what ancestors faced in the past. He notes that the current problem cannot be compared to the plague of locust that occurred at the time of ancestors. This is used to instill hope that the current problem is there for the time being and will soon go away. On the other hand, the use of the logo in appeal is evident in paragraph nine. In this section, the appeal is achieved through use of comparison. The author uses appeal to show that happiness and contentment cannot only be achieved by availability of money but other values in life. He notes “happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort” (Roosevelt). This appeal is used to help the audience forget the current situation, and work harder in fulfilling their desires of achieving more in life. Paragraph fourteen also makes use of explicit logos. The author uses logos to urge people to put more effort as a way of overcoming the crisis facing country. He notes that the effects of people effort are increased value of agricultural products. As a result, it will lead to the power to buy the output of the cities. The speech notes that this can only be achieved through closure of small farms. Moreover, the paragraph depicts use of ethos. Speaking on these issues as a President of the country, it shows that it will be easy to implement suggestions made in this section. As a result, the paper is more convincing to the audience that the implementation of the programs will help in overcoming the current crisis. Speaking as the President of the country gives it a strong appeal and conviction. Additionally, paragraph eighteen also depicts the intrinsic and extrinsic ethos as the author speaks. The speech shows the authority of the president in addressing the problems affecting the country. He notes as the president, the first thing he will do is ensure that the national house is put in order. The other thing is showing the policy he will adopt as the president. He notes that the focus is on establishing a sound national economy. This part of the speech is more convincing as he speaks as the president elect. It gives the population hope that favorable policies are in offing that will help in the transformation of the country towards addressing the economic crisis. On the other hand, the author uses pathos to appeal to people emotions. This is seen as he makes a declaration that he will spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment. The use of ‘I’ shows that he reaffirms decisions he is going to take. On paragraph 21, the author depicts use of ethos and pathos. Ethos is seen as he claims to understand the temper people are going through. As a president, he is supposed to know various challenges that people are going through in the country. This gives credibility to various claims that the author makes in the speech. The author also shows pathos. He appeals to the people emotions by calling them to sacrifice for the common good of the country. He notes that they must move together as a loyal and trained army. He notes that only through sacrifice that they will be able to achieve progress and overcome the crisis. In paragraph 31, the speech has a strong use of pathos. This is seen as the author concludes by calling for blessings from God. In most cases, the mention of word God touches on emotions. The author says, “We humbly ask the blessing of God” (Roosevelt). He also asks for protection and guidance from God. As a result, the speech manages to appeal to the president that it is possible to overcome the crisis. Such an ending also helps the audience not to forget the key highlights of the speech. In conclusion, the speech was famous as it was done when the country was going through various challenges. Moreover, the speech addressed many challenges that were affecting people at the period. The presidents helped in highlighting various policies the country were to take in order to overcome the challenges. The speech also helped in showing the citizens that they had a role to play in helping the country achieves the economic prosperity of yesteryears. The speech has also gained recognition as the policies adopted helped the country overcome the challenges and gain world acceptance as a superpower. It is clear, therefore, that a speech can help in mobilizing people towards achieving a particular goal in the society. This is because the country was able to get out of the crisis after implementation of things listed in the speech. The worlds and appeals used in the speech make it more believable. As a result, I have a strong believe that everything that was said in the speech was true. Moreover, I live in an age where the policies adopted by the president are acknowledged to have helped the country get out of the challenges that existed during the period. On the other hand, I believe the words were true as the author is calling for guidance from God. This indicates that he had hope to achieve everything he said by getting guidance from God. The speech depicts the zeal of the speaker in helping the country to overcome the crisis the country was going through. Through analysis that has been done above, it is clearly that the author was full of passion in helping the country to rise again. This is seen as he instills hopes to the hopeless through use of appeal. Moreover, it is seen as he calls for collective effort from the citizens in resolving the challenges. Read More