Date Written: November 2, 2009
Written For: UCCS English 131
An Exigent Arsenal with a Purpose
President
Roosevelt wanted Americans to be ready for war to help them fight against the
Axis powers. He saw a way to help
the economy out of the Great Depression and keep our country safe from the
Axis. By using claims of fact to
build an exigent situation, Roosevelt asks the country to help out and support
the cause. His case is aided by
appeals to pathos and ethos.
Roosevelt used his personal arsenal of knowledge to get the American
people on his side and prepared for the dangers ahead. He wanted his country to prosper.
One
of the biggest forms of entertainment and news during this time was the
radio. Families would gather
around the radio and listen to news, stories, or music. Roosevelt begins his speech with, “this
is not a fireside chat on war” (409).
This alone builds exigency.
The family is immediately alerted to the fact that this is not any
normal evening spent listening to the radio. This was their clue that this night would be very
important. Roosevelt knows that
Americans will understand the situation in other countries, but when it enters
their own territory, they will be called to action. He wants to let Americans know that they are not immune,
“let us no longer blind ourselves to the undeniable fact that the evil forces
which have crushed and undermined and corrupted so many others are already
within our own gates” (413). A
threat to the home front is something that every American fears and it is
something they are willing to defend with their lives, so if they can prevent
it before it happens, then they will do what they can to keep it from happening.
Kairos
deals with timing and if Roosevelt had spoken this speech in an untimely
manner, the United States of America would have suffered a checkmate. This situation had reached a point of
no return. The Axis were planning
their attacks and hurting innocent people, Roosevelt had to make this point
known, “some of our people like to believe that wars in Europe and in Asia are
of no concern to us. But it is a
matter of most vital concern to us that European and Asiatic war makers should
not gain control of the oceans which lead to this hemisphere” (411). Roosevelt’s reliance on this exigency
really builds on the importance of this situation and information, and without
kairos, the value of this situation would be passed over. However, he does try to keep the people
calm with, “does anyone seriously believe that we need to fear attack anywhere
in the Americas while a free Britain remains our most powerful naval neighbor
in the Atlantic?” (411). He
wants the magnitude of this situation to be known, but he does not want the
people to fear an attack at this very moment. He demands preparedness and his use of kairos affords it to
him.
Exigency
of a situation is different depending on intended audience. Without the correct audience, every
minute piece of information that Roosevelt has spoken would be of little
importance to those to whom it is being spoken. The audience in this piece is most specifically the
American people as a whole. He is
not just speaking to CEOs or other big businessmen; he is also speaking with
the middle and lower classes. He
clearly states, “so, I appeal to the owners of plants, to the managers, to the
workers, to our own government employees to put every ounce of effort into
producing these munitions swiftly and without stitnt” (417). This is an issue that affected everyone
and he needed that to be known. By
stating, “as the government is determined to protect the rights of the workers,
so the nation has a right to expect that the men who man the machines will
discharge their full responsibilities to the urgent needs of defense”
(416). He gives every man a
purpose in a way that says help us because we have helped you, which is
something many Americans were willing to do at this time. Americans are a prideful people and
they will protect their country no matter the length of time or strength needed
in this battle. Americans are a
perfect audience when it comes to issues of their country because many of them
will be ready to help their beloved country at the drop of a hat.
Roosevelt
knows that the American people are prideful and so he uses pathetic appeals to
strengthen his case. To threaten
an American’s freedom is to threaten their soul. So when, “the Nazi masters of Germany have made it clear
that they intend not only to dominate all life and thought in their own
country, but also enslave the whole of Europe, and then to use the resources of
Europe to dominate the rest of the world” (410), an American’s sense of pride
and security are put on alert. Sure,
the American wants to help Europe, but a main part of that is so the war will
not be brought to the country they love so much. Roosevelt characterizes Nazi Germany as an evil super power
hungry and aching for more. He
tells Americans that unless they help Britain’s fight, the war will spread to
America. Another sense Roosevelt
appeals to is that of responsibility and remorse. He states, “There are also American citizens, many of them
in high places, who, unwittingly in most cases, are aiding and abetting the
work of those agents” (413).
Americans are a whole. When
one does wrong, it is almost as if nothing can be right until it is fixed and
because of this, Americans rely on each other in a familial way. Roosevelt goes on to clarify, “I do not
charge these American citizens with being foreign agents. I do not charge them with doing exactly
the kind of work that the dictators want done in the United States” (413). He also knows that this will increase
the want to help, as many Americans are taught from a young age that people
make mistakes and they can be helped.
What better way to help your fellow American, than to protect the
country form war? One appeal to
the audience’s emotions which Roosevelt fails to mention (or possibly chooses
to ignore) is the body count already totaled by the Axis. Many lives had already been lost at
this point. His case might have
been strengthened if he had mentioned these numbers. Americans would have been scared for their lives as well if
this had been mentioned.
The
speech would hold little importance without the help of ethos. The ethos for this speech deals with
not only the moral character of the orator, but also but also the orator’s
knowledge of the subject at hand. When speaking to the body of people, especially
in the United States, the title, President, holds a very high importance. Roosevelt is the elected leader and
without his guidance, the country would be a completely different place. Roosevelt begins to establish his
personal ethos from the second paragraph of the speech, “my mind goes back
eight years to a night in the midst of a domestic crisis. It was a time when the wheels of
American industry were grinding to a full stop, when the whole banking system
of our country had ceased function.
I well remember that while I sat in my study in the White House,
preparing to talk to the people of the United States, I had before my eyes the
picture of all those Americans with whom I was talking” (409-10). In those few sentences, Roosevelt
reminds that he is the president and he has dealt with a very serious,
habilitating crisis in the past, and this crisis is something that was still
affecting Americans at the time of his speech. As for his ethos from knowledge of the war, Roosevelt lets
the readers know, “on September 27th, 1940---this year---by an
agreement signed in Berlin, three powerful nations, two in Europe and one in
Asia, joined themselves together in the threat that if the United States of
America interfered with or blocked the expansion program of these three
nations---a program aimed at world control---they would unite in ultimate
action against the United States” (410).
His knowledge of this fact lets the audience know that the President
knows exactly what they will be up against and he is not scared of the
consequences. By appealing to
pathos and ethos, the author’s argument is strengthened. The audience responds to certain points
and when they hear them from somebody who has a proven track record, they know
they are in the best hands possible. A very important link between these two
appeals is that Americans, being a prideful nation, prefer a knowledgeable
President, so they can have pride and trust in him. Overall, these appeals combined make a strong case for what
Roosevelt asks of the American people.
As an American citizen, it would be very hard to turn his request
down. It would almost be a
blasphemy of sorts.
The
direct way that Roosevelt addresses the issue adds exigency and importance to
the speech. He lets the listeners
know what is going to happen and just how they can help their country. His use of pathos and ethos afford him
room to ask for such an important task from an entire nation. These tasks he requests are ways to
create preparedness and hopefully economic stimulation. His reliance on timing
gives him a base on which to stand.
This is a speech which roused a nation to act and without expert wording
and knowledge, it might have had an opposite effect.