“Give me liberty, or give me death!” is a quote from Patrick Henry’s famous speech to the Virginia Convention; even though George W. Bush did not use this line specifically, when he spoke to the Americans about war in his post-nine-eleven speech the ideas that were the base of his speech were the same as Henry’s; they both wanted to convince their people that war was both inevitable and necessary. Henry’s goal was to prove to the people that there was no other choice but war, and that their freedoms were being taken away by an English monarchy that saw them more as an insolent child, than a civilized and educated populous. Much like Henry, Bush tried to convince the American people that all other options had been for naught and now they must go to war; the al Qaida had taken our basic right to safety, and by doing so they are taking away our freedom to live care-free. Patrick Henry also mentioned in his speech that the English monarchy had dishonored the colonists in many ways; ways that include, but that are not limited to, the monarchy making slaves out of the colonists, the monarchy has ignored their attempts of reconciliation, and the monarchy has forced the colonists to subject themselves to ridiculous laws. Bush also listed his grievances against his enemy, the al Qaida and their terrorist regime, by mentioning that the al Qaida has brutally massacred our people, the al Qaida has tried to put fear into our hearts, and that the al Qaida has destroyed the safety of our homeland. Both Bush and Henry said they supported the war and that they would do anything for their people: Henry says “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death” and Bush says, “I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield, I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.”; in each of the quotes both speakers are trying to convince their people that there is nothing that cannot be sacrificed for the good of their country, and that they are willing to give up everything in their power to do so. Overall, both are trying to convince their audience that war is going to happen and that the people should support it.
jklein8 said,
September 29, 2008 @ 1:29 am
Katelyn,
You did a fantastic job in comparing and contrasting Bush’s and Henry’s speech. What stood out in your paragraph was the mentioning of the striking similarities of the two quotes Bush and Henry said about how they were willing to give up everything in their power for the freedom of their country. Great job in pointing out the similarities between the Al Qaida and the English monarchy. I realized that in both Henry’s and Bush’s speech, they both used repetition in parts of their speech to emphasize points. It was also interesting that the two speeches were very similar, although they happened at different times in history.