The speaker is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s speech is a declaration of war. Roosevelt starts his speech from a question of fact – Japanese attempts at causing damage to USA – by saying that “one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American Island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message” (“Transcript of Joint Address to Congress” 3). Then the speech approaches the situation from a question of value as Roosevelt states that “we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us” (“Transcript of Joint Address to Congress” 10).
To persuade people that the threat is calamitous, Roosevelt appeals to ethos (ethics), pathos (emotions), and logos (logic and minds). Example of ethos in the speech: “Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace” (“Transcript of Joint Address to Congress” 4); pathos: “I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost” (“Transcript of Joint Address to Congress” 5); logos: “with confidence in our armed forces… we will gain the inevitable triumph- so help us God” (“Transcript of Joint Address to Congress” 12).
Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is a technique of five steps that allows increasing motivation for a certain action. Roosevelt immediately implements the first step (getting public’s attention) by stating that the 7th December of 1941 “will live in infamy” (“Transcript of Joint Address to Congress” 2). He then states why there is a need to pay utmost attention to the problem by saying that “there is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger” (“Transcript of Joint Address to Congress” 11). Further comes the solution of establishing “a state of war… between the United States and the Japanese Empire” (“Transcript of Joint Address to Congress” 13), which also invokes the public to take action.
Roosevelt organizes his speech causally. He starts with stating that there were some attacks on the USA, then indicating that the responsive measures must follow. “The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan… as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense” (“Transcript of Joint Address to Congress” 2).
The speech performed by Roosevelt is most convincing because of the speech’s structure and its ability to be ethically, emotionally, and logically appealing. The citations mentioned above adequately represent that.
Work Cited
“Transcript of Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Japan (1941).” Our Documents, Web.