Franklin Delano Roosevelt Address To The Nation Speech Rhetorical Analysis

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States and attended Columbia Law School as well as Harvard University. During his presidency, the United States was blindsided by a malicious attack from Japanese forces at Pearl Harbor. In his address to the Nation speech that followed, he effectively convinces the American people and Congress that war on Japan is the best option by using strong word choice and a sense of nationalism to draw emotion from his audience. These appeals to pathos, along with integrating a clear call-to-action for the American people, creates an effective argument for his speech.
To begin, Roosevelt’s strong use of language, which is seen throughout the speech, creates an emotional response among his audience and exemplifies the way he uses appeals to pathos

This fear, he is hoping, will cause his people to want to take action and precautions against the evil at hand. Because he wants his people to be on his side when launching war on Japan, he appeals to pathos in the way he speaks by provoking feelings of anger and a hunger for revenge toward Japan. Other strategically stated phrases from Roosevelt, such as “deliberately sought to deceive” or “unprovoked and dastardly”, have a similar effect. Words that really stand out when this is said are deliberately, unprovoked, and dastardly. He really makes a point of how the Japanese went out of their way to attack America when in turn, Americans have been nothing but peaceful to Japan and its people prior to the attacks. Roosevelt also incorporates repetition into his speech to further his argument: “Last night, Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night, Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night, Japanese forces attacked Wake Island.