preview

Franklin Roosevelt Inaugural Speech Summary

Decent Essays

In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt is taking the office from Herbert Hoover the president when The Great Depression began its destruction on America. Herbert Hoover was often thought of as one of the main reason for the Depression for he saw it as “a passing incident in our national lives” (New Deal). He did very little to help the people and believed that the situation “wasn’t the federal government's job to try and resolve.” A majority of American workforce is now unemployed when President Franklin D. Roosevelt takes office. President Roosevelt's inaugural speech is his way of expressing his goals as the new leader to the American people. Roosevelt is stuck in a situation where many of the American people already feel neglected because of Hoover’s lack of leadership. In Roosevelt’s speech he uses many techniques to make his claim. His claim being that the American people can trust that he is going to better their situations and America altogether.
FDR does not beat around the bush when it comes to what has been happening in America for the past three years. In the second paragraph of his speech he states “Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment” (Inaugural Address). He does this so that the audience sees his realization of the issue facing America and that he will not stand to watch it continue. The audience he is addressing are the American people affected by the depression that want change to happen. The first step in fixing something is recognizing that there is a problem which Roosevelt does and does well. He states the goal of his presidency being “Our greatest primary task is to put people to work”(Inaugural Address). Not only does he state his goals he has actual evidence of how he plans to complete them. “It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we should treat the emergency of a war but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.” Him backing up this claim with reason helps the audience gain some trust within him seeing that he has a plan. He continues doing this throughout his speech making his speech more

Get Access