Pathos

When we first read this speech, we might be inclined to think it's maybe kind of ethos-y. Right off the bat, it starts out with all these official-sounding titles and addresses, and the U.S. is called out by its full name of the United States of America. Those kinds of things usually mean we're in for some serious ethos.

But no.

In this speech, all of that official-sounding title and address stuff just serves to add a big dollop of authority to the pathos pounding FDR is about to deliver.

Pathos as a rhetorical device is all about bringing on the feels. President Roosevelt isn't trying to logically take his audience through the events of the previous day or explain to them the rules of engagement; he's trying to get people as steamed as he is about Japan's "unprovoked and dastardly attack" on U.S. forces (26).

How do we know this? Well, our first clue is that he uses words like "unprovoked" and "dastardly." Those aren't neutral words. Those are angry words.

FDR's ire is also made pretty obvious by the fact that he uses the word "deliberately" three times to describe Japan's sneaky treachery (and by the fact that he actually uses the word "treachery") (1; 5; 6; 22). He accuses Japan of making "false statements" and undertaking a "surprise offensive," both of which are big no-no's in Roosevelt's eyes (6; 16).

There's no question that this was one mad POTUS. And once the rest of the country got past the shock of being sneak-attacked by a supposed friend, it didn't take long for everyone else to board the Angry Train as well.

The attack on Pearl Harbor wasn't the beginning of tensions between Japan and the U.S., but it wasn't exactly an olive branch, either. In fact, it was kind of the exact opposite of an olive branch. And FDR's speech definitely let everyone know exactly how he felt about that.