TOW #22

Aaron Pieroni

3/16/14

TOW #22 FDR Inaugural Speech

            On March 4, 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) gave his inaugural address to the United States of America after winning the presidential election, actively making him the 32^nd President of The United States (POTUS).  Roosevelt is known for leading America through one of its hardest periods of time, the end of the Great Depression and the early days of World War II.  He is also widely regarded for many executive orders that instituted the New Deal, a program that brought many jobs to the American people through regulation of Wall Street, banks, transportation and the government work place.

            Roosevelt addresses the nation, particularly the poorer class of citizens, in his inaugural address in order to rally support for himself and for his future “actions”, and an over all “change” in government, agriculture, international trading and other various industries.  To sell this idea Roosevelt uses spiritual diction to try and appeal to the mostly religious American people, who are most likely looking for a messiah figure in these troubling times. One such instance of this use of diction is in his sixth paragraph; “The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.” In this instance Roosevelt is able to refer to the bankers of the United States as some kind of usurpers, who control the “temple of our civilization”.  By creating this imagery through his spiritual diction Roosevelt allows the audience to infer that by saying, “restore that temple to the ancient truths”, he most certainly means for the American people to restore democracy and order, through applying “social values”, to the United States through his guidance and not “monetary profit”.  Through this diction and imagery the common American would associate Roosevelt with a messiah who wishes to do god’s work by rebuilding America.