How has Paul Keating used language to present his views in his speech on such a solemn and important occasion? Paul Keating uses many different and effective forms of language to present his views. Keating uses forms of past tense, relevant statistics, comparison, and grouping the Australian soldier as no-one, but at the same time, everyone. Keating’s’ first line of his speech is ‘ We do not know this Australian’s name and we never will’ with this line, Keating instantly shows his audience what he is going to speak about throughout his speech. Throughout Keating’s speech he is constantly referring to the soldiers lost in the war as The Australian Soldier.
What Keating achieves from this is to give the complete totality of how many Australians gave up their lives for the good of the nation. This is where Keating also uses some powerful statistics to reinforce what he has been saying. Keating then proceeds to continue to reinforce that fact the Australian soldier is ‘All of them. And he is one of us’. Keating as included the Australian Soldier in everyone of his statistics. Keating tells the audience that he knows that the ‘Australian soldier was one of 45, 000 Australians who died on the Western Front.
He is one of the 415, 000 Australians who volunteered for services in the First World War… .’ Keating continues to give more statistics concerning every way Australia has fought, and still counting the Australian Soldier as everyone of them. Keatings other powerful technique is that of his comparison between Australia in the day of the soldier, and the present Australia. Keating says ‘This Australia and the Australia he knew are like foreign countries… a world as been created beyond the reach of his imagination’. Keating proceeds to compare both the World Wars, saying that ‘Great war was a mad brutal awful struggle…
The Essay on Why Australians Joined World War 1
In 1914, it was the first moment of when Australia’s joined World War one, The Australian government decided that it was a mature move to support its “Mother Country’ Britain. Australians were proud of being part of the British Empire; it was the biggest empire the world had ever seen rivalling over many great ancient empires such as the Romans. Australian’s felt proud to be a part of the empire ...
waste of human life was so terrible… war which was supposed to end all wars in fact sowed the seeds of second, even more terrible, war-We might think this soldier died in vain’ Keating continues to talk in concerning how the soldiers had not died in vain, as long as Australia still remembers them. Keating also tells of a vital lesson that can taught from these soldiers, and that is ‘about ordinary people – and the lesson was that they were not ordinary’ Keating then says that these soldiers were above the generals and politicians and that the soldiers were the ones who taught the people of the world about courage, hardship, being bold as well as resilient and to stick together. Vital lessons in life that were highlighted and stuck in our faces by our Australian soldiers. The language techniques used in this speech were perfect for the occasion, being a tribute to the Australian soldiers lost in wars. Keating expressed his own personal views in a short but fierce way.
Keatings combinations of statistics, past tense, and comparisons that anyone can understand and see the value of were enough for Keating to make a strong point about his belief that the Unknown Australian Soldier died not in vain, but for the good of the people living within the country.
