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Speeches - analysis questions
Part 1:
Read the speeches below and identify the literary techniques
that are used. Answer the questions related to each speech.
Extract from: Ronald Regan – Tear Down the Wall!
This was a challenge from US President Ronald Reagan to
destroy the Berlin Wall. June 12, 1987.
“We come to Berlin, we American Presidents, because it's our duty to
speak in this place of freedom. But I must confess, we’re drawn here
by other things as well; by the feeling of history in this city -- more
than 500 years older than our own nation; by the beauty of the
Grunewald and the Tiergarten; most of all, by your courage and
determination. Perhaps the composer, Paul Linke, understood
something about American Presidents. You see, like so many
Presidents before me, I come here today because wherever I go,
whatever I do: “Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin” [I still have a
suitcase in Berlin.]
Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe
and North America. I understand that it is being seen and heard as
well in the East. To those listening throughout Eastern Europe, I
extend my warmest greetings and the good will of the American
people. To those listening in East Berlin, a special word: Although I
cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to
those standing here before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow
countrymen in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt
nur ein Berlin. [There is only one Berlin.]
Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city,
part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of
Europe. From the Baltic South, those barriers cut across Germany in
a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther
south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain
armed guards and checkpoints all the same -- still a restriction on
the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men
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and women the will of a totalitarian state.
Yet, it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly; here,
cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television
screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the
mind of the world.
Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German
separated from his fellow men.”
Questions
What feeling is Regan trying to create?
How is the audience persuaded by his viewpoint?
What techniques does he use?
Abraham Lincoln – November 19th 1862
Lincoln gave this speech during the American Civil War
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation
or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are
met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a
portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave
their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we
cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who
struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add
or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living
rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who
fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from
these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for
which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this
nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that
government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not
perish from the earth.”
Question
Why does Lincoln use “our” and “we”?
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Extract from: Winston Churchill- Blood, Toil and Tears! –
13th May 1940
Churchill made this speech to the House of Commons during
World War II, when Britain was fighting against the Nazis.
“To form an Administration of this scale and complexity is a serious
undertaking in itself, but it must be remembered that we are in the
preliminary stage of one of the greatest battles in history, that we
are in action at many other points in Norway and in Holland, that
we have to be prepared in the Mediterranean, that the air battle is
continuous and that many preparations, such as have been indicated
by my hon. Friend below the Gangway, have to be made here at
home. In this crisis I hope I may be pardoned if I do not address the
House at any length today. I hope that any of my friends and
colleagues, or former colleagues, who are affected by the political
reconstruction, will make allowance, all allowance, for any lack of
ceremony with which it has been necessary to act. I would say to the
House, as I said to those who have joined this government: "I have
nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."
We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have
before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You
ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and
air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give
us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in
the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.
You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory,
victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long
and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival
for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge
and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its
goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that
our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel
entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "come then, let us go
forward together with our united strength."
Questions
What feeling is Churchill trying to create?
What effect does Churchill’s use of questions have on the audience?
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Extract from: John F. Kennedy – Inaugural Address. 20th
January 1961
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been
granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum
danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do
not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other
people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion
which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who
serve it. And the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do
for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens
of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together
we can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world,
ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice
which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward,
with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the
land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that
here on earth God's work must truly be our own.
Question
What effect does Kennedy’s use of repetition have on the audience?
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Extract from: Martin Luther King Jr. – I have a dream
28th August 1963
Martin Luther King Jr. was prominent civil rights activist in
America.
“I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great
trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail
cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and
staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the
veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that
unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to
Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to
Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities,
knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my
friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I
still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American
dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of
former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit
down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state
sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of
oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a
nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by
the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
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I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious
racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of
"interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama
little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little
white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every
hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made
plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of
the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South
with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair
a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the
jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of
brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to
pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up
for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”
Questions
What response is King trying to get from the audience?
What persuasive techniques are used?
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What effect does the use of “I” and “we” have?
Part 2:
Watch these videos on YouTube. Comment on how tone of voice,
volume and pace is used to get the message across
1. Steve Jobs: Stanford Commencement Speech 2005
2. Dalton Sherman: Do you believe in me?
3. Elizabeth Gilbert: Your elusive creative genius – TED
Talk
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Part 3:
Using examples of the written speeches and videos above above,
write an explanation about the features of an effective speech.
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