Franklin D Gilbert Inaugural Speech Analysis

Firstly, I would like to discuss on the opening of Gilbert’s essay, where he points to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous inaugural address and its famous assertion: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (418). In my opinion, Gilbert was trying to connect his readers to the event-1933 the depression in America and lead them to recognize the theory about the possession of money and material are not the keys of happiness. Besides that, with a reference of Roosevelt’s speech, Gilbert has also successfully appeal to his readers’ positive attention and agreement on money does not buy happiness. As a general information of the strike of Great Depression, August 1929: In year 1933, the economy was still has no sign of recovery, Americans had suffered the worst economic crisis. At that time, United States’ unemployment rate was peaking at 25% that meant one in three people was unemployed, many landlords’ rental income was at a bad loss, bankruptcy and majority industries were in the downturn. As the matter of fact, readers are generally recognized the author’s effort to contextualize Roosevelt’s speech and his famous line serve as the essay’s introduction as a whole. This is because the usage of real-life situation aids comprehension; majority readers have experienced the feeling and exact situation, therefore it will be easily understood by the audience. …show more content…
Furthermore, prevalent of “innocent belief that money buys happiness” continue to be promoted in contemporary American culture, because we believe that our happiness will be potentially enriched by