Rhetorical Analysis Of Fdr's First Inaugural Address

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In the 1930’s there were many controversies within society as a whole. With the Great Depression just beginning, people all around were losing hope and needed guidance as to where to go. In order to shed some light on this predicament, Franklin Delano Roosevelt shared a very valuable speech to the citizens on March 4, 1933. This speech was called the First Inaugural Address. During this speech, he spoke about how even though taxes are rising, trade is completely frozen in all areas, and unemployment has reached an extreme level, everyone needs to remain calm and remember who and what America truly is. In order to make this speech applicable and persuade the audience that what he is saying is true, he implemented the rhetorical devices of anaphora, logos, and exaggeration. …show more content…

This is called using the device of anaphora. For example, he stated, “It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, the State, and the local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped…” Roosevelt repeated the clause, “It can be helped,” simply to engage his audience into the topic at hand and to also share to them how the Great Depression can be helped if certain actions are taken. This device was extremely effective throughout the speech because it not only engaged the audience into Roosevelts thoughts, but also improved his diction and tone as