Franklin Delano’s Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address
“Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”
The Great Depression in the United States was triggered by the crash of the stock market on October 29th of 1929. Later that day will be remembered as Black Tuesday. Thereafter profits, prices and income drastically dropped, unemployment rates reached 25 percent. The nation was emotionally and physically drained, people needed a new leader who would give them hope. Therefore the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt came at just the right time. Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address on March 4th, 1933 to a nation in need of reassurance.
In his speech Franklin Roosevelt uses such rhetorical devices as repetition, climatic word order and balanced sentences to encourage people to confront their unjustified fears and terrors that paralyze the needed efforts to fight the economic crisis in the time of the Great Depression. Roosevelt also employs the scheme of parallelism, personification and metaphor to create a better sense of understanding of Americas devastating economic situation.
Taking a look at the first two sentences of the speech, Roosevelt uses the word candor, which means honesty and sincerity. This illustrates that he understands that people expect him to speak honestly about the current situation in the country. And that is exactly what Roosevelt does; he states that the inaugural address is “preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly”. This is an appeal to ethos: Roosevelt establishes his credibility by being honest and straightforwardly acknowledging the problems present in the country.
In the opening paragraph Franklin Roosevelt states: “… the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance”. In the future due to its power this phrase will become the main point of his entire speech. One of the reasons it has such strong effect is due to the personification of the word fear. Roosevelt refers to fear as something alive and characterizes it as “nameless,” “unreasoning,” and “unjustified.” In doing so he explains how fearing fear can take away people ability to take action. Roosevelt uses this personification to explain that fear, just like other things in life, can be defeated.
In the sentence beginning with the phrase, “In the field of foreign policy,” Roosevelt uses the words “neighbor” and “respect” four times. That is a great example of Roosevelt using repetition to emphasize the importance of maintaining a respectful relationship with the “neighbor” countries of the US as well as countries all around the world. He is also appealing to the sense of unity, pathos, highlighting that America is part of a global community.
In the speech Franklin Roosevelt also uses the rhetorical device of climatic word order: “They have no vision, and where there is no vision, the people perish” to emphasize that “the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods” have no strategies to fix the economic crisis that they are responsible for, this is an appeal to logos. Also Roosevelt uses balanced sentence likes: “Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort” to point out that although the nation is in a place of poverty right now, people must remember that not everything in life revolves around money, there are things that are way more fulfilling.
Throughout his speech Roosevelt uses the word “common” multiple times: “common difficulties”; “common discipline”; “common problems”. By using the fraise “common difficulties” Roosevelt is affirming the sense of unity among the audience, he American people to know that they are not the only ones facing challenges in this time of uncertainty. “Common discipline” illustrates that all citizens must share the same principles to face the problems they are facing. “Common problems” is also an appeal to pathos and the nation that will come together as a whole to address the problems that affect every single citizen.
In the phrase “We are stricken by no plague of locusts” Roosevelt refers to a biblical story in which God sent disastrous plagues upon people, communities and countries that disobeyed him. Swarms of locusts where sent to eat and take away everything from the people, leaving them with no resources for survival. In this phrase Roosevelt is reassuring the audience that they are not experiencing God’s punishment. Although he acknowledges that the resources of the country have been greatly mismanaged, he believes America is still blessed with many resources.
As we approach the part of the speech where Roosevelt begins to outline the economical policies that will free the country from the crisis, he states: “This Nation calls for action, and action now”. Capitalizing a word like “Nation” is the device of personification. Roosevelt is giving a non-life object the ability to give a call for action using it’s own voice, in other worlds giving it a persona. In this case the word “Nation” represents American people and their demands to the government to take immediate actions in resolving existing problems. Through the speech Roosevelt also personifies emotions and feelings using humanistic qualities; this helps him better appeal to the audience (pathos).
In the speech Roosevelt outlines three different solutions to the banking crisis: “There must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other peoples’ money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency”. He repeats the phrase “there must be” to highlight the importance of all the actions that need to take place before bakers and banks can be trusted with citizens’ money again. The organizational structure of this parallelism used together with repetition helps make it more compelling.
Throughout the speech Roosevelt often refers to war utilizes several war-related terms: “the emergence of a war”; “lines of attack”; “armed strife”; “great army of our people”; “disciplined attack”; “wage a war” and so on. For example in the phrase “invaded by a foreign foe”, Roosevelt is referring to the economic crisis as foreign foe. In using these war metaphors he immediately activates the audiences sensation of patriotism that unites them against an enemy in time of war. Roosevelt also states: “I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe”. In other words, he is saying that his plan is to increase government control over the economy. And in using the metaphors to amplify the war like state sensation he justifies his plans, since according to the Constitution, President gains additional powers during times of war.
In conclusion in his First Inaugural Address Franklin Delano Roosevelt uses powerful language to connect with the audience, establish himself as leader, and leave a long-lasting impression. His first inaugural address gives a reaffirmation to the nation distress and a promise for a brighter future. This speech will be remembered as it was given in one of the most complicated times in American history and Franklin Delano Roosevelt managed to be heard, to deliver his message and to give hope to the citizens of the United States.