Rhetorical Analysis Of Winston Churchill's Speech

Ask anyone, and most children choose summer as their favorite time of year. To them, nothing beats time out of school with your family and friends hitting the beaches. But go back about 80 years from now, and the summer became trimmed not with beaches and cheer, but with uncertainty and fear. In Britain, a lonely isle in a caldron of political turmoil, one Englishman, arguably the best leader Britain had ever had, concerned himself not with popsicles and baseball, but with his country’s very existence. War boiled over in Europe in a few weeks, and Winston Churchill gave one of his most famous speeches to try to rouse his greatest ally- the United States. By analyzing and explaining the purpose and audience, subject, and voice of his speech, we will see just how desperate England had become.
Summer of 1939 quickly became heated,

and not from the weather. Japan started bombing China, Hitler reached fever pitch, and in a few weeks, would invade Poland, starting the bloodiest war in human history. Winston Churchill saw all this and desperately tried to wake America. What he faced they could not overcome alone, “If this habit of military dictatorships' breaking into other people's lands with bomb and shell and bullet, stealing the property and killing the proprietors, spreads too widely, we may none of us be able to think of summer holidays for quite a while.” (Churchill, paragraph 5). By getting America into the war, Britain just might have a shot.
Churchill wasted no time in his speech. He immediately dives into the past, by asking how the world spent summer twenty-five years ago. Oh yes, the Prussians had hacked down most of their neighbors in World War I. This then enables him to get down to what he really wants: what he calls, “the hush…hanging over Europe.” (Churchill, Paragraph 6). Through that hush one can hear, “The tramp of two million German soldiers and more than a million Italians- ‘going on maneuvers’…there is a hush among all the neighbors of Germany and Italy while they are wondering which one is going to be "liberated" next.” (Churchill, Paragraph 6). This reveals itself as the subject of the speech: Showing America the monster of Europe devouring itself.
Voice has often called itself the best tool of an orator, as voices tend to do.

Many a successful wordsmith has mastered voice, Winston Churchill included. He start off his speech in a jovial way, after all, summertime has hit Britain. But Winston mainly concerns himself with the prospect of Germany hitting England, and so, as he delves deeper into his speech, his voice becomes less jovial and more ironic and grave. In his last three paragraphs, he speaks as though with a straight face, getting into the nutshell of the current events. “If Herr Hitler does not make war, there will be no war. No one else is going to make war. Britain and France are determined to shed no blood except in self-defense or in defense of their Allies…we must strive to frame some system of human relations in the future which will bring to an end this prolonged hideous uncertainty.” (Churchill, Paragraph 9; 11) So there: he has laid down the gauntlet for America. The US must come to the aid of their Allies, or only more uncertainty will abound. Using voice, a most powerful weapon, Winston Churchill successfully, eventually, helped cajole America into World War

II.
Through that time of uncertainty, one thing became certain. If the world owed anyone a debt, it would have to owe it to Winston Churchill. His speech, ‘A Hush over Europe’ at least helped show students how much tension and fear hung over England like smog. On this summer day, America slowly awakened to reality. On this summer day, Winston Churchill laid the foundation for his place in the hallowed halls of history. Not bad for a speech on one summer day.