Analysis Of Roosevelt's First Inaugural Speech

Emily Nicholas
Professor Goodman
RWS 200
15 March 2015
Political Language
A president’s first inaugural speech is an important part of the start of a presidential term and sets the stage for the years to come. In 1933, at the time the depression was the worst and many had lost hope in the government, Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) had to regain trust and stimulate action in his country. FDR graduated from Harvard and went right into politics becoming a senate, then vice president, later becoming the President. In the book, “Presidential Communication: Description and Analysis” by Robert E. Denton and Dan F. Hahn, they establish that successful politicians use specific linguistic devices. Denton and Hahn are both professors at universities and
262). This was very important because of the situation the United States was in. In the years before FDR was elected, the United States was in the worst economic depression and unemployment was at an all time high. In order to get everyone back on their feet, FDR used this important technique to motivate many Americans to improve their country through hard work. At the beginning of his speech he stated, “let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance” (Roosevelt, “1st …” par. 1). He was responding to events that were occurring at the time and encouraging his audience to face this crisis as well as the fear that comes with it. Since many Americans had lost hope in themselves and the government, Roosevelt uses action stimulation to help regain confidence in themselves and him. He tried to stimulate his country by getting everyone to face this fear of failure. By having this fear, the only thing that was going to occur was making people less productive. This function of political language was very important in this situation in order to get people back in the workforce and encouraged to put more trust in their new
According to Denton and Han this technique is called “Agenda-Setting” which is used when politicians either address a problem or predict a problem. By talking about a certain problem and bringing attention to it this would bring it to the public’s attention, then would set out a plan to overcome the problem (Denton and Han, pg. 264). In FDR’s case he recognizes that the United State’s primary task was to put people to work then explained some steps people would have to take to achieve the task. In his speech he states, “we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use for the land for those best fitted for the land” (Roosevelt, “1st …” par. 10). In this statement he made, he helped people recognize the reason unemployment was becoming a problem then informed his audience what they should do to increase employment. In this part of his speech he planned steps that was made to get his country back into a better economy and to get the workforce back to normal. What FDR brought to the public’s attention was the fact that the overbalance of population was a problem then he stated what plans were necessary to overcome this