Infamy Speech Analysis

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"December 7th, 1941, a day that will live in infamy." The famous words stated to the American people by president Franklin D. Roosevelt, a day after Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese forces. On December 8th, 1941, FDR spoke before the citizens of the United States, delivering one of the most renowned speeches of American History. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, The United States declared war against the Japanese Empire. That declaration was formally announced during Roosevelt 's well-structured speech to alert the American people. In FDR 's "Infamy" speech, he uses repetition and emotional phrases, while keeping a subtle tone, to rally the American citizens to support war efforts against the Japanese empire. The first literary device …show more content…
Towards the beginning of his speech he starts off with a calm tone when addressing the tragic event that occurred at Pearl Harbor. By using a subtle, somber and solemn tone, he can make the listeners focus of the catastrophic event that happened, respecting the people that were affected from it. The first portion of the speech was more depressing and sorrowful compared to the remainder of the speech. The most famous sentence of the speech shows how he creates a depressing, respectful-like emotion for the listeners; "... a day that will live in infamy." FDR also uses words like 'suddenly ' and 'deliberately ' in a soft tone to present the ruthlessness of the Japanese empire 's attacks. As the speech continues, he starts to pick up the tone, to stir the emotions of the American people. Rallying the Americans to prepare for war efforts against Japan can 't be done in a solemn tone. He transitioned the speech halfway through to focus on the reckless and relentless …show more content…
He did this so he could make the listeners understand the ruthless attacks the Japanese committed. According to Roosevelt 's main objective of the speech, he wanted the Americans to support and prepare for a war against the Japanese Empire. He successfully completed this objective by using emotional words to make the Americans upset by the attacks. "This form of treachery," "onslaught against us," and "deliberately planned"–are all phrases that FDR used in the speech to present the evilness of the Japanese at the time. These words didn 't necessarily stick out from the rest of the speech. But they did set the emotion for the listeners as he spoke. Emotional words can change the effect of a sentence

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