For this assessment you must demonstrate your ability to think and read critically by writing a four paragraph, compare contrast analysis essay. You will use one of the critical analysis perspectives from the lesson.
• Use both speeches to answer one of the following analysis questions:
Historical/Biographical Analysis
Has the idea of “freedom from fear” changed over time? Compare and contrast both speeches to answer this question.
Gender Analysis
Is the “freedom from fear” a concern for both men and women equally? Compare and contrast both speeches to answer this question.
Economic/Political Analysis
Are the poor and the wealthy equally concerned about the “freedom from fear”? Compare and contrast both speeches to answer this question.
• Organize your four paragraphs using the “Wedding Cake” model you learned about.
• Compose your compare contrast essay using direct evidence from the text. Be sure to include commentary and insights from your personal experiences, observations, and other readings.
Use the Grading Rubric to guide your writing.
FIRST SPEECH ON PAGE 4
SECOND ON PAGE 7
“Wedding Cake Model”
Compare and Contrast Analysis Essay — Text Version
Brief Introduction Paragraph
Texts Being Analyzed
Straightforward Answer in a Single Sentence / Thesis
Briefly introduce the topic and give your answer to the essay question. Your single sentence answer is your thesis. Use the title and author of the text when available.
________________________________________
Analysis of First Text Paragraph
Critical Perspective
Evidence / Quotations used in Support
Explanation of Textual Support
This paragraph uses one of the two texts being analyzed to support your answer. Your evidence must be direct wherever possible. That means quoting the first text.
________________________________________
Analysis of Second Text Paragraph
Critical Perspective
Evidence / Quotations used in Support
Explanation of Textual Support
This paragraph uses the second of the two texts analyzed to support your answer. Your evidence must be direct wherever possible. That means quoting the second text.
________________________________________
Conclusion Paragraph
Similarities and Differences of Both Texts
Explanation Why the Comparisons and Contrasts are Important to Your Answer
Connecting Your Answer to Your Experiences, Observations, and Readings
This final paragraph explains the similarities and differences between the two texts being analyzed. Your best commentary and insights from your experiences, observations, and other readings come here. Be sure your explanation of the similarities and differences amounts to a full answer to the essay question.
________________________________________
Using this organization will help you evaluate the two speeches we will read on the next page. As you can see, organizing this way gives you plenty of space in the conclusion to explain your analysis using your expertise
Read an excerpt of The Four Freedoms Speech. Before you begin, open a new document for notes. Divide your notes into three areas labeled:
1. Historical/Biographical Analysis
2. Gender Analysis
3. Economic/Political Analysis
Think about the different perspectives as you read. Note the time period and anything you learn about the speaker under Historical/Biographical Analysis. Note anywhere you notice the concerns of women addressed or ignored under Gender Analysis. Finally, note any language dealing with those who have little in comparison to those who have a great deal under Economic/Political Analysis. These are the lenses you will use for your essay assignment at the end of the lesson.
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“THE FOUR FREEDOMS” by FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, 1941
I suppose that every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world–assailed either by arms, or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace….
Therefore, as your President, performing my constitutional duty to “give to the Congress information of the state of the Union,” I find it, unhappily, necessary to report that the future and the safety of our country and of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our borders….
No realistic American can expect from a dictator’s peace international generosity, or return of true independence, or world disarmament, or freedom of expression, or freedom of religion–or even good business. Such a peace would bring no security for us or for our neighbors. “Those, who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” As a nation, we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed.…
As long as the aggressor nations maintain the offensive, they- not we–will choose the time and the place and the method of their attack. And that is why the future of all the American Republics is today in serious danger…
The need of the moment is that our actions and our policy should be devoted primarily–almost exclusively–to meeting this foreign peril. For all our domestic problems are now a part of the great emergency. Just as our national policy in internal affairs has been based upon a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all of our fellow men within our gates, so our national policy in foreign affairs has been based on a decent respect for the rights and the dignity of all nations, large and small. And the justice of morality must and will win in the end.
Our national policy is this:
First, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to all-inclusive national defense.
Second, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to full support of all those resolute people everywhere who are resisting aggression and are thereby keeping war away from our Hemisphere. By this support, we express our determination that the democratic cause shall prevail; and we strengthen the defense and the security of our own nation.
Third, by an impressive expression of the public will and without regard to partisanship, we are committed to the proposition that principles of morality and considerations for our own security will never permit us to acquiesce in a peace dictated by aggressors and sponsored by appeasers. We know that enduring peace cannot be bought at the cost of other people’s freedom….
Let us say to the democracies: “We Americans are vitally concerned in your defense of freedom. We are putting forth our energies, our resources and our organizing powers to give you the strength to regain and maintain a free world …
The happiness of future generations of Americans may well depend upon how effective and how immediate we can make our aid felt. No one can tell the exact character of the emergency situations that we may be called upon to meet. The Nation’s hands must not be tied when the Nation’s life is in danger.…
For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy. The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:
Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.
Jobs for those who can work.
Security for those who need it.
The ending of special privilege for the few.
The preservation of civil liberties for all.
The enjoyment . . . the enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living. These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.…
We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance.
We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.
We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it.…
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression–everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way–everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want–which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants-everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear–which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor–anywhere in the world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.…. A good society is able to face schemes of world domination and foreign revolutions alike without fear.…
This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose.
Read the excerpt of his speech carefully. Before you begin, open a new document for notes. Divide your notes into three areas labeled:
1. Historical/Biographical Analysis
2. Gender Analysis
3. Economic/Political Analysis
Think about the different perspectives as you read. Note the time period and anything you learn about the speaker under Historical/Biographical Analysis. Note anywhere you notice the concerns of women addressed or ignored under Gender Analysis. Finally, note any language dealing with those who have little in comparison to those who have a great deal underEconomic/Political Analysis. These are the lenses you will use for your essay assignment at the end of the lesson.
Welcoming Remarks by President Obama to Prime Minister Cameron of the United Kingdom
It’s now been 200 years since the British first came here, to the White House – under somewhat different circumstances. They made quite an impression! They really lit up the place! But we moved on. And today, like so many Presidents and Prime Ministers before us, we meet to reaffirm one of the greatest alliances the world has ever known….
It is remarkable to consider. Down [through] the decades we’ve seen nations rise and fall; wars fought and peace defended; a city divided, a wall come down; countries imprisoned behind an Iron Curtain, then liberated. We’ve seen the demise of a Cold War and the rise of new threats; the transition from an Industrial Revolution to an Information Age where new technologies empower our citizens and our adversaries like never before. Our world has been transformed over and over, and it will be again….
We stand together and we work together and we bleed together and we build together, in good times and in bad, because when we do, our nations are more secure, our people are more prosperous, and the world is a safer and better and more just place. [We seek] security and prosperity…not only for our own citizens, but for people around the world….
And so in the sunlight of this beautiful morning… we reaffirm the enduring values in which our alliance is forever rooted. We believe that [all people], if they’re willing to work hard [and] if they play by the rules, deserve a fair shot [and] deserve a chance to succeed. So in these tough economic times, we stand united in our determination to create the jobs that put our people back to work, in expanding trade that is both free and fair, and in fighting for a global economy where every nation plays by the same rules.
We believe that our citizens should be able to live free from fear. So, like generations before us, we stand united in the defense of our countries and against those who would terrorize our people, or endanger the globe with the world’s most dangerous weapons.
We believe in the universal rights of all people, so we stand united in our support for those who seek to choose their leaders and forge their future, including the brave citizens of the Middle East and North Africa, who deserve the same God-given rights and freedoms as people everywhere.
And we believe in the inherent dignity of every human being. So we will stand united in advancing the developments that lift people and nations out of poverty – the new crops that feed a village, the care that saves a mother in childbirth, the vaccine that allows a child to live a long and healthy life.
This is what we believe. This is who we are. This is what we do together, what we achieve together every single day. And this is the alliance that we renew today – guided by the interests we share, grounded in the values that we cherish not just for our time but for all time….