Franklin Roosevelt's Speech In his speech, Franklin Roosevelt is trying to convince congress to declare war on Japan for the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th 194. He expresses his concern by using different rhetorical devices throughout his speech. Examples of the rhetorical devices Franklin Roosevelt utilized are Anaphora, Diction, and Syntax Anaphora is shown in Roosevelt's speech clearly during the middle of his speech as he starts four of the sentences with, "Last night, [ the ] Japanese [ Forces ] attacked..." (Line 21-24). Followed by the places that were attacked: Wake Island, Philippine Island, Guam, and Hong Kong. Along with Malaya and Midway Island Franklin Roosevelt uses Diction throughout his speech as he tries to express his urgency to congress to declare war on the Japanese for "Deliberately" (Line 13 and 14) attacking the U.S. and "caused severe damage to America" (Line 16) These examples along with him saying, "I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost." (Line 17) Roosevelt uses these words to speak to the audience in a way to make them angry at the Japanese by showing them that Japan attacked America on purpose and they killed innocent American people on purpose. The Japanese have damaged America and Americans need to fight back because the attack was "unprovoked and dastardly" (Line 41) Towards the end of his speech, Roosevelt uses syntax as he goes from using "The United States" (Line 26) and phrases addressing America in 3rd person to saying, "all measures be taken or 'our' defense" (Line 30-31) "How long it may take 'us' to overcome this invasion" (Line 32) He now refers to America as "'our' people" (Line 37) "'our interests are in grave danger" (Line 37-38). By using those words, "so help 'us' God" (Line 40) symbolizes that the Japanese had not just attacked America, they attacked him, and they attacked all of us. In conclusion, throughout his speech, Franklin Roosevelt used different types of rhetorical devices to enforce the urgency to congress about declaring war on Japan for attacking America on December 7th, 1941
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