[ENGLISH] We Shall Fight on the Beaches – "Perfect" Paper 1 Question Response

The text that has been provided is a Winston Churchill speech that was presented during the World War 2. This text can be identified as a political speech as this speech’s aim is to persuade its target audience into agreeing with the political figure’s opinions and ideas through the use of rhetorical devices, slogans and other persuasive devices that can convince people into agreeing into Churchill’s ideas of a specific event happening at that time (Germany’s advancements during the Second World War). He has also used a variety of literary devices that is suitable for his aim and his target audience. In this text Winston Churchill delivers a speech to the House of Commons about the British’s efforts and participation in the Second World War which has not been promising. This speech also talks about Churchill’s hopes of the so-called “New World” (The USA) of joining the war to aid Britain as well as the Allies. For this I will analyse the use of various literary and persuasive device that Churchill has written for his speech as well as other contextual analysis that is appropriate in this speech.

To captivate the suitable target audience, Winston Churchill has included the use of formal speech for this speech as he tries to clearly elaborate his point towards the audience. We can assume that Churchill has used a formal register to address his points to his target audience as the presence of complex vocabulary can be seen in the text. Evidence of formal register being used can be found with words such as “stringency”, “malignancy”, and “subjugated” are present in the extract. The reason of the use of formal register in this speech is that it helps persuade his target audience, people of the House of Commons, as they’re well knowledged and are able to understand complex vocabularies which are sometimes spoken between knowledged people. Churchill voices out his speech and specifically targets his speech to the people who are, more or less, politically aligned to his ideas. As they all have want to drive the German army back to Germany and away from the British Isles, Churchill has used strong diction such as the phrases “enemy aliens” or “passionate enemies” to differentiate themselves from the Nazi Germans.  Strong diction has also been used to help persuade Churchill’s target audience as these phrases make them feel like they are one class ahead of the Germans.

This speech Churchill This speech “We Shall Fight on the Beaches” was intended to be used as a sympathetic speech which can help convince the audience of the rightness of Churchill’s ideals. The use of inclusive language plays a vital role in persuading Churchill’s target audience. Throughout the whole extract, the word “we” is seen often. Not only the word “we” was frequently used, Churchill has also used imperative (seen often with the phrase “we shall”) throughout the whole extract. The phrase “we shall” emphasizes the need for the British forces to strengthen their forces and also try to seek help from the “New World”. The phrase also acts as a memorable slogan which can help convince his target audience to do things that he has listed as things that “we shall” act upon. Slogans are very useful when one is executing an advertising campaign or when one is trying to convince others. Slogans are effective in this case because this can help retain the information that Churchill is trying to convey through the means of catchy and simple phrases such as “we shall”.

Winston Churchill has effectively spoken to his target audience with a consistent tone and mood which creates a slight manipulative feel that lures the audience yet also trying to present strong patriotic ideals. We can see in this speech that the tone that Winston Churchill has been using is forceful with passion and anger. This can be found in one of the phrases “There is, however, another class, for which I feel not the slightest sympathy”. This sentence can reveal that Churchill is trying to blame a social class for not being able to help support the country during times of despair. This tone was specifically used to make the people feel like they are not patriotic enough thus making them want to take part in war or any other job placement that helps the country during times of war. The patriotism imagery is seen quite often throughout the entire extract. The frequency of the imagery can mean that there is a strong emphasis on being patriotic towards one’s country. This is made by the slightly angry tone mentioned above.

Throughout the extract, Winston Churchill Most of Churchill’s speech talked about Churchill’s wants and needs for the country to the people. Churchill attempts to provoke these points by including the use of pathos and ethos which has been attempted to manipulate the audience’s own beliefs into believing Churchill’s. These can be found in several places throughout the extract of the speech: “I have, myself, full confidence”, “Continental Tyrants”, “We are assured” and “We shall not flag or flail”. The uses of pathos and ethos in Churchill’s speech have helped persuade his target audience with the use of emotive language. The use of the word “I” can also be seen frequently in the extract given. The word I is used as a form of pathos as well to give a sense of credibility towards the audience and also makes sure that the audience (which are the citizens) feel safe and protected under the guise of Churchill.

To conclude, this extract from Winston Churchill’s speech We Shall Fight on the Beaches released during the Second World War have shown a great use of rhetoric devices and literary devices to help persuade his audience which predominantly consists of upper class high ranked well educated people of the United Kingdom to at least show some sympathy to the country and try to help the country progress during times of war. The speech also tries to voice out Churchill’s need of foreign aid from the “New World”. The effective use of persuasive devices may have helped persuade his audience into performing the actions that he wanted them to do since the war broke out. Some examples of the devices that are used are allusion, inclusive language, strong diction and other devices that were listed previously. The speech had made a great impact towards the society during that era (as this was released during the early years of the Second World War). This speech may have helped create (with its citizens) a common enemy (Nazi Germany) of the war.