Roosevelt's Four Freedom Speech Analysis

In the late 1930s and early 1940s an ever growing America had many different visions for the future. President Roosevelt along with Norman Rockwell are two notable American icons that had similar but contrasting views on the image of America. In Roosevelt’s Quarantine speech he talks about how America wants peace and how the nations are declaring war on each other, even when some nations did not want anything to do with World War II. Roosevelt states “America hates war. America hopes for peace. Therefore, America actively engages in the search for peace.” In Roosevelt’s Four Freedom speech he begins talking about how America has never had a serious threat to its national security especially with the British Navy a allied strength off of the …show more content…
Rockwell took the ideas from Roosevelt’s four freedoms speech but interpreted them in his own way. Rockwell’s painting quickly became a center of interest among the American society. In Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Worship paintings, the wording states Save Freedom of Speech and Save Freedom of Worship, Buy War Bonds. In the first painting a man can be seen standing in the center of a meeting room surrounded by what appears to be businessmen. From observing the painting all the people in the room are of Caucasian decent and are all dressed in suits. The man standing up looks to be of the working class or an everyday blue collar American. Rockwell’s interpretation from Roosevelt’s speech is that the upper class is looking at the working man to buy war bonds, even if he can’t afford them. Then there is the freedom of worship painting. This painting contains mixed ethnic groups, everyone is praying with there hands clasped together, some with rosary beads and one person holding a book that appears to be a bible or another book of worship. The saying in this painting is, Each according to the dictates of his own conscience. From observing this painting, Rockwell is saying that any religion and any race will be able to worship freely. The next two painting have a heading that says, OURS…to fight for. The next painting is the Freedom from Want poster which depicts a Caucasian family sitting down to a nice dinner with turkey and several fixings. The older generation is feeding the younger. The interpretation Rockwell was trying to show in this painting was that Americans wont want for anything and will be able to be with family and friends to enjoy a meal. Next is the Freedom of Fear which is a family putting their children to bed. This picture is showing that families can put their children to bed without any fear of what is going on in the world. Rockwell’s