The Fourteen Points Speech Ethos Pathos Logos

574 Words3 Pages

Franklin D. Roosevelt gave birth to the term, “day of infamy” in 1941 by opening one of the most important and influential speeches of the United States with the phrase, “December 7, 1941 A Date Which Will Live in Infamy”. This speech was delivered by President Roosevelt after the catastrophic bombing of Pearl Harbor. Woodrow Wilson's, “The Fourteen Points” Speech was given on January 8th of 1918, and stands to be one of the most powerful expressions of the idealist mindset in the entire century. The 14 points were assembled and delivered by President Wilson during the first world war in an attempt to set the terms for reconstruction and the mending process of the countries involved. The major similarities between these two speeches is the representation of the rhetorical elements ethos and pathos while the major difference includes the usage of logos. Firstly, the two speeches have one important similarity regarding the clear representation of the rhetorical element, ethos. The utilization of ethos in a speech shows the credibility of the speaker and how that affects the audience's trust in what the speaker is …show more content…

Both speakers talked about the safety and security of the United States. Both events discussed in the two speeches resulted in an exponential amount of casualties; But discussed specifically, United States citizens. For example, President Roosevelt stated, “The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces.” He chose this element to appeal to the extreme emotional turmoil that the whole country was feeling, including the president himself. He created a common ground between himself and the audience by referencing the joint pain of the nation. Both presidents used the emotional effects of the damage going on in the U.S. at the time to move the audience emotionally and connect the speaker to the