Stab in the Back Speech Analysis Essay

On June 10, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt read his “Stab in the Back” speech to the University of Virginia. The relationship between the speech’s audience and its content is intended for a college-level audience. First, the speech’s content uses a higher diction level for a college-level audience than a lower education level offered to a younger audience. In paragraph two the speech, states, “I avail myself of that privilege.” This shows that Franklin D. Roosevelt’s word choice in his speech uses high-level words such as to avail and privilege, which helps acknowledge the audience better. Second, each paragraph written includes a sentence with at least twenty or more words. The tenth paragraph in the speech states, “It is natural and understandable that the younger generation should first ask itself what the extension of the philosophy of force to all the world would lead to ultimately.” 

This reveals that Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech’s content was written for a higher-level audience. Third, the speech’s sentence structure is complex. In the third paragraph, the speech states, “Most of the time, they are the simple but nevertheless difficult questions, questions of work to do, opportunities to find, ambitions to satisfy.” This shows that the speech possesses a higher skill level to have a better relationship with the audience. Next, the language tone of the speech is objective and presents facts to the audience. In the seventh paragraph, the speech states, “Again today the young men and the young women of America ask themselves with earnestness and with deep concern this same question: ‘What is to become of the country we know?” This shows that Franklin D. Roosevelt is speaking to a college-level audience about what is to come for the United States. 

Lastly, an older audience would be interested in reading this speech. In the second paragraph, the speech states, “I notice by the program that I am asked to address the class of 1940. I avail myself of that privilege. But I also take this very apt occasion to speak to many other classes that have graduated through all the years, classes that are still in the period of study, not alone in the schools of learning of the Nation, but classes that have come up through the great schools of experience;..." This shows in detail that an older audience would be more interested in this speech rather than a younger audience. 

In conclusion, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech  “Stab in the Back,” which was read to the University of Virginia, creates a relationship between the speech’s audience and its content by intending it for a college-level audience.