Woodrow Wilson 14 Points Speech Analysis

World War One (WWI) was a crucial turning point for the United States. The U.S. was involved in WWI partly because of Germany’s submarine warfare on other European nations. President Woodrow Wilson, the president during this time period, wanted to hold off on joining the war for as long as possible. To no avail, the U.S. had to enter the war to try to subdue the hostile negotiations in Europe. The war had just ended when Wilson delivered The Fourteen Points speech, which was intended to propose world peace and the actions that had to be taken in order to achieve that peace. By dissecting the content of the Fourteen Points, the reader can understand the implications and impact Wilson’s speech had on the audience. Wilson is addressing not only Americans in this speech, but also other countries. This is evident by the fact that the purpose of the Fourteen Points is to propose world peace. He uses a sophisticated yet simple word choice, which helps the audience better grasp the full meaning of the speech. Many time with Presidents giving speeches, they try to over complicate the meaning of the speech by using extensive, complicated vocabulary. Wilson’s word choice in this speech though, was very appropriate for the situation. Wilson also had the speech arranged in a simple way which listed out the fourteen points in a couple of sentences. This helped the audience perceive Wilson’s speech as crucial important to not only the U.S. but also the rest of the world. Throughout Wilson’s speech, he also uses appeals to his advantage. Wilson uses logos and ethos the most to convey his point to the audience. One great example of Wilsons use of ethos and logos is when Wilson says “We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected” (Wilson). Wilson used logic to the situation because basic natural rights had been violated by the events that took place in Europe, which is stated in the speech. This also qualifies as ethos because any issue that interferes with natural rights or rights that make life impossible without, is a violation of ethics. I feel like Wilson choose these appeals because it shows that these issues are important to him and he wants the audience to feel like their ethical choices are not challenged. Overall, I think Wilson choose the right appeals to include in his speech. If pathos was used the majority of the time, then Wilson …show more content…
President Wilson gave the speech after WWI, which to me just does not make sense. The goal of the Fourteen Points was to propose world peace, which more than likely would have been more helpful in ending the war. The points made in the speech were things that had to be done in order to restore the peace between the U.S. and other countries. I feel like this speech would have been better if it was presented during the war, like once the U.S. was involved. Then the points would be the terms for the United States to back out and the world be a semi peaceful peace. Since the speech was after the war, it kind of makes the terms pointless to fulfill because there is no reason to any