Words: 1920
Every successful movement through speeches has always conveyed a more in depth message of the writer’s true purpose. There are many ways in which a writer uses rhetorical devices such as diction, style of word arrangement, purpose, and tone in order to achieve his effects upon his audience. Although there are different uses of rhetorical devices in speeches, Mahatma Gandhi’s, “The Quit India,” and Edouard Daladier’s January 29, 1940 address, “The Nazi’s Aim is Slavery,” to the people of France, were excellent examples of how an author uses ethos, logos pathos, context and tone.
Mahatma Gandhi and Edouard Daladier’s achievement of their intended effects can be clearly seen through their use of these rhetorical devices. Mahatma Gandhi’s reputation helped appeal to his character and his persuasive attitude towards how his character is established by means of the speech or discourse. As a spiritual and political leader, Mahatma Gandhi helped in the fight against the Indian people’s oppression under British rule through non-violent resistance and civil disobedience to obtain political and social goals.
Gandhi obtained his law degree from London and he also traveled through India for a year to better acquaint himself with his people. Among his many reputable events, Gandhi gained national reputation when he founded an ashram, called Satyagraha Ashram, to help relieve Indian land owner’s who were exploited by British indigo farmers to grow indigo on fifteen percent of their land and to give up that crop as rent. Not only was Gandhi a political figure to his people, he was also part of his people spiritually and physically.
Being a political figure among the oppressed gave him more viability and aided in Gandhi’s search for his audience’s trust, which he rightly attained. Gandhi preached of Ahimsa constantly to show his people that he was not only teaching the way of Ahimsa but also living it. Edouard Daladier was the Premier of France who was giving a national address to the French people. During World War I he graduated as a lawyer; meanwhile, surviving four years of concentrated warfare.
He served as Prime Minister of France, this was the most important office Edouard Daladier held; he was also the leader of the Radical Party in France. Daladier had many posts in the French government throughout his lifetime, some including minister of colonies and minister of public works. Throughout his career, Daladier was always representing his people and making decisions, which he thought, were going to be the best for them. In speeches speakers use their rhetorical devices to appeal to the audience’s emotions of pity, sorrow, and compassionate sympathy.
Mahatma Gandhi’s speech, “The Quit India,” takes advantage of the audience’s situation by touching on past, present, and possibly, future points. Gandhi has been through the struggle with his audiences, so he knows how to evoke the right emotions because they are evoked in him as well. One emotion that Gandhi induces is pride. Gandhi evokes a feeling of pride through this statement; “A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing for himself, he fights only for the freedom of his country” (“The Quit India”).
When Gandhi refers to his Indian audience as “soldiers,” he gives each individual Indian a sense of importance in the struggle, but when he uses the whole combined description of a “non-violent soldier of freedom,” he gives the people a sense of importance with a specific purpose. This purpose is that not only are they “soldiers,” they are “non-violent soldiers;” soldiers who are fighting back without physical confrontation but through civil disobedience to create a statement of national unity and to make evident that they are all fighting for a universal cause; freedom.
Furthermore, in this quote, he gives his audience guidance into what is expected of each “soldier,” that each soldier does not fight for personal gain or glory; however, he fights for the overall good of his country- in this case national freedom. His use of non-violent resistance gave his audience the impression of superiority because he didn’t lower himself to the same violent actions of the oppressors. Gandhi’s vision for the future of his country’s people and their government is one that uplifts his audience because he envisions a land with freedom for all its inhabitants no matter what their race, social, or religious background.
Gandhi states in this quote: I believe that in history of the world, there has not been a more genuinely democratic struggle for freedom than ours… But it is my conviction that inasmuch as these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to realize the democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own master. It is to join struggle for such democracy that I invite you today. Once you realize this you will forget the differences between the Hindus and Muslims, and think of ourselves as Indians only, engaged in the common struggle for independence. The Nazi regime was one of the worst genocide episodes in the history of the world; over six million people were brutally murdered for a cause proposed by a narrow minded power monger who sought to take over the world and impose the existence of a “pure race,” not only on Europe, but also the whole world. Daladier knew what Adolf Hitler’s grand scheme was and he was going to let it be known to his country and to all those who opposed the Nazi Germany institution.
In Daladier’s speech, “The Nazi’s Aim is Slavery,” he first establishes a sense of potential degradation from the approaching army by saying, “The human beings who constitute these nations are for him only cattle” (“The Nazi’s Aim is Slavery”). In saying this, Daladier makes his people feel as if they are going to be nothing other than Hitler’s property and subject to his demands and actions. To this point Hitler’s demands and actions included slavery and murder, with no other options.
Daladier makes this apparent by stating, “Under this domination, in thousands of towns and villages in Europe there are millions of human beings now living in misery which, some months ago, they could never have imagined” (“The Nazi’s Aim is Slavery”). Fear is now injected into his people’s emotions as he says that all the Nazi conquered populations of Europe are at this time “living in misery,” and now these destroyers of peace and livelihood are on their way to make the same of the French inhabitants.
He furthermore engrains the wretchedness that these subjugated populaces are experiencing by declaring, “Their whole peoples have been deprived of the means of moral and material happiness” (“The Nazi’s Aim is Slavery”). However, Daladier’s speech is not only filled with fear and disheartenment, but it also takes a completely different approach at the end when he fortifies his people by promising them that their future would be different, their future would serve a greater purpose.
Daladier concludes his speech with a one of the most inspirational and dynamic quote that has been proclaimed in history, he says: For us there is more to do than merely win the war. We shall win it, but we must also win a victory far greater than that of arms. In this world of masters and slaves, which those madmen who rule at Berlin are seeking to forge, we must also save liberty and human dignity. Each orator uses cold hard evidence to strengthen his core proposal by providing facts, ideas, and information.
Gandhi lived by Ahimsa, which is a way of life where one does not inflict any type of injury to any living creature through complete abstinence from causing any pain or harm whatsoever, either by thought, word, or deed (Sivananda). The following quote supports the main idea that Gandhi is trying to depict by creating a foundation for his words, “I want you to know and feel that there is nothing but purest Ahimsa in all that I am saying and doing today” (“The Quit India”). By ascertaining his Ahimsa, the audience can distinguish that what he says throughout his speech is all sustained by his foundation of Ahimsa.
During his speech, Gandhi makes reference to God numerous times to assure the audience that God is backing them in their great effort for independence. For example, Gandhi proclaims, “God has vouchsafed to me a priceless gift in the weapon of Ahimsa” (“The Quit India”). Moreover, Gandhi refers to God again when he makes this statement, “I have faith, therefore, that if, in spite of our shortcomings, the big thing does happen, it will be because God wanted to help us by crowning with success our silent, unremitting Sadhana for the last twenty-two years” (“The Quit India”).
Personal experiences can also serve as evidence in an author’s work; for instance when Gandhi was incarcerated he read Carlyle’s French Resolution and learned some issues about the Russian revolution from Pandit Jawaharlal and through the personal experiences of these two men, as well as his own, he came to see that “inasmuch as these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence, they failed to realize the democratic ideal” (“The Quit India”). As a result of this experience, his speech tries to enlighten his audience in a way that will make them act in a non-violent way as opposed to that of Carlyle and Jawaharlal.
Daladier uses the information that he has gained from the war to appeal to the audience’s reason when he says that Hitler takes all the riches of the nations he conquers to prevent revolt; additionally, he wipes out their leaders and scientifically looks for ways to degrade the physique and moral of those whose independence he has taken away (“The Nazi’s Aim is Slavery”). He also supports his speech with examples that Hitler has portrayed during the war when he says that the Nazis aim of domination is not only isolated to the displacement of the balance of power and the imposition of supremacy f one nation but they also seek the systematic and total destruction of those nations that Hitler has conquered, without treaty (“The Nazi’s Aim is Slavery”). Daladier then uses the examples of specific countries that have already succumb to Hitler’s dominion, “Austria, Bohemia, Slovakia and Poland are only lands of despair” (“The Nazi’s Aim is Slavery”). Although authors may use rhetorical devices in different forms they all have the same purpose, to persuade their audience.
Gandhi and Daladier’s speeches are exceptional illustrations of how an author puts to practice the rhetorical devices of ethos, logos, and pathos to accomplish the predetermined effects that they intend to shed on their audiences. Both authors were exceedingly successful in their pursuit for constructing a persuasive argument. The various rhetorical strategies that were used in the speeches granted necessary assistance to the general production of the persuasive work. ? Works Cited Daladier, Eduardo. Famous Quotes. 29 January 1940. 30 January 2008 ;http://www. famousquotes. me. k/directory-famous-speeches. htm;. Gandhi, Mahatma. “The Quit India” Famous Quotes. 8 August 1942. 30 January 2008 ;http://www. famousquotes. me. uk/directory-famous-speeches. htm;. “Daladier, Edouard. ” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 4 Feb. 2008 ;http://www. britannica. com/eb/article-9028574;. “Mahatma Gandhi Biography. ” I Love India. 28 Jan. 2008 ;http://www. iloveindia. com/indian-heroes/mahatma-gandhi/index. html;. Sivananda, Sri Swami. Ahimsa. 11 December 2005. 23 February 2008 ;http://www. dlshq. org/teachings/ahimsa. htm;.