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Examples Of Pathos In The Pearl Harbor Speech

Decent Essays

The famous speech, Pearl Harbor address to the nation by Franklin D. Roosevelt (president at the time) shows us a vast amount of rhetorical appeals: Pathos, Ethos, and Logos to the nation. This speech announced to us that the intended audience and the persuasion used in order to change the peoples’ minds to defend our nation. The Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation speech was given to tell the U.S. that Japan has initiated war by attacking Oahu, Hawaii; while also attacking islands on the Pacific coast. Roosevelt addressed to the nation the stance we must take in order to protect ourselves from Japan and from attacks in the future. It was also revealed that Japan deliberately planned and attacked Hawaii do to the distance between each other. The Japanese ambush caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. It was then that America made a move to attack the Japanese Empire on December 8, 1941. The Use of Pathos in this speech is used in a way that affects everyone’s emotions do to the attack on Oahu, Hawaii. Here’s an example of pathos in the speech given, “The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost.” This quote appealed to everyone’s emotion in the U.S. by telling us the damage caused by the Japanese. Everyone in the U.S. are most likely feeling depressed and full of anger towards the Japanese Empire because the military forces and the innocent citizens were attacked and/or killed. With Roosevelt’s statements, the people in the U.S. are feeling more insecure, whereas the president wants to go to war to show other nations that we will defend ourselves. As for Ethos that make the speech more credible, we have the president. The president makes the speech more credible because, he is well-known almost everywhere in the U.S. which gives us the reliability and trustworthiness needed in this situation. Another credibility of this speech would be that it was being played on the radio throughout the U.S., which means it must have been of the utmost importance. Another rhetorical appeal that was used in the speech were logos, to make the speech more credible, logical, and

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