Why did I include this essay?

            As a moment in American history goes, the Pearl Harbor attack was one that rings through time.  The speech former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered to Congress the following day has lived on long after the scars of the attack have faded.  I chose to do my critical analysis on this speech simply for the fact of how important the words spoken were to the American people.  Even though I was born thirty-one and a half years later, the open lines of his statement are burned into my memory.

            I feel this is a good piece to demonstrate some of my different abilities because of my own personal ties and interest in the Pacific Theater during the war.  Many years ago, I interviewed my grandfather, who was in the war in the pacific, regarding where he was and what he felt when he heard of the attack. 

            What makes this essay different is that I found it easy to keep personal opinion out of my writing.  The amount of emotion that was expressed through his chosen words allowed me to sit back and let the speech speak for itself.  Because of that, I was able to be analytical of what was being said without as much personal judgments.

            The end result is a paper that I was fairly proud of.  I felt that I was able to relay the true feeling he expressed to all of America during this tragedy.  Even more so, I hope that the reader sees just how special and important his address to Congress and the American People really was, and just how much it played in unifying the nation towards victory.