Four Freedom Speech Rhetorical Analysis

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Freedom is something that I was lucky enough to be born with, something that many people are not. Ironically, it has only made answering the question, “What does it mean to be free?” much harder. Freedom is something that I’ve always had, so I’ve never had to contemplate its purpose. Freedom is something that many men and women have died for, died to give, and millions of others. To me, freedom is the comfort in knowing that I have the ability to do and say whatever I want, to achieve my dreams when so many others can’t, to fight for myself and others. 32nd President Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed his thoughts on freedom during the “Four Freedoms Speech,” in 1941. He encourages Americans to stand up and prepare to support countries defending their freedom during World War Two by using several …show more content…

Beyond using emotions to be persuasive, he also notably used logos, logic, to justify his reasoning. “When the dictators—if the dictators—are ready to make war upon us, they will not wait for an act of war on our part. They did not wait for Norway or Belgium or the Netherlands to commit an act of war,” (Roosevelt 40). Roosevelt knows that war could come to the United States at any moment, war over the very foundation of freedom, and they have to be prepared when so many before them weren’t. In the end, F.D.R, has four freedoms he believes every person should have the right to: speech, religion, economic opportunity, and safety. And to oppress these rights is to lack morality, to be part of the “New order of tyranny,” (Roosevelt 63). Activist Malala Yousafzai conveys several times through speeches, like the one given at the United Nations and in an interview with Diane Sawyer, that freedom to her is “their right to equality of opportunity,” (Yousafzai

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