Franklin D Roosevelt Speech Rhetorical Analysis

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Imagine being given the responsibility of addressing a nation, that does not at all want anything to do with directly joining the war, during the midst of the Second World War. This was the task given to Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 29, 1940. The American people wanted to stay as far away from war as possible but as the Nazis were moving in on Britain, Roosevelt realized that if Americans didn’t want to join the war, they could still help and he had some major convincing to do. Britain was at war and losing against the more powerful Nazi Germany, the Axis powers were trying to manipulate people into believing that what they were doing was strictly for protection purposes and their intentions were nothing but good. Truthfully the Nazis …show more content…

Roosevelt most prominently used logos and pathos to get his point across. He was the one of the most well-respected president in American history which means his ethos wasn’t questioned because people knew who he was as a person and they trusted him. He judged the logic of American’s and used that to his advantage. He informed the Americans by giving many crude examples of the consequences as to what may happen if America decides to let the Nazis take over Europe. Franklin D. Roosevelt knew just standing around would be detrimental to America and watching the Nazis take over Europe was not going to be a …show more content…

Roosevelt was a very well-respected President. He also happened to be the only President in American history to ever to receive a third term. Having three terms alone shows his credibility and the trust that his listeners had in him. Though he was so well respected and obviously knew he was much more important than most Americas, right from the start of his radio broadcast he addresses the people listening as “My Friends” which implies he is talking to everybody on one specific level. It is also Franklin D. Roosevelt admitting to his listeners that he is no better than anyone else and he needed the listeners of his broadcast to leave his credibility unquestioned, because he knew that alone he could not defeat this Nazi power. Franklin D. Roosevelt told it exactly how it was without sugarcoating it which I believe led many Americas to agree with his wishes for them to support the war