I did this assignment on the Citizen Kane speech. I feel that not only did the campaigner show a bias towards Jim Gettys, but Citizen Kane showed political bias towards him as well. Citizen Kane belittled Jim Gettys’ ability to run the state to his fullest potential. He stated that he needed to point out and make known the dishonesty and downright villainy, of Boss Jim Gettys’ political machine that is in complete control of the state. Another form of bias used was Ethnic bias to describe the citizens of the state as “the working man” and “the underfed,” just to name a few. I think that this speech has one main fallacy, ad hominen. Citizen Kane attacks Jim Gettys throughout his entire speech rather than attacking the issues at hand. A rhetorical device that was used was using the word “boss” as a euphemism to describe Jim Gettys as the boss of the state being a villainous political character.
One of the first arguments that Citizen Kane made in his speech was that Jim Gettys was evil and dishonest. This in itself makes the listener to automatically assume that Citizen Kane feels that he is the best at this job and that no one else could do it any better. The next argument that is obvious in this speech is that Citizen Kane states that he will win in every poll to be elected. He can have no proof of this. As we know how with the recounts of Florida, there can be many factors to effect an election from faulty equipment or miscounting the ballots. The next argument that Citizen Kane makes is that he is already hard at work keeping his promises but in the beginning of his speech he said that he did not have any campaign promises because he did not have any chances of winning the election before hand. The last argument that Citizen Kane makes is that when elected that he will do everything in his power to get Jim Gettys prosecuted and convicted of his “evil” doings. Not having any proof of this makes it very hard for him to be able to say that he can keep these promises.
The Essay on Citizen Kane Textual Analysis Of The Picnic Scene
Directed, produced and starring Orson Welles, Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941), is famous for it's many 'remarkable scenes, cinematic and narrative technique and experimental innovations' (Dirks, 1996). Written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz and filmed by Gregg Toland Kane is 'classed as a fresh and classic masterpiece' (Dirks, 1996). Kane is a brilliantly crafted series of flash backs and ...
I feel that this speech was very effective for the time that it took place. With the nation being under one of the biggest depressions in history, every word from his mouth sounded like gold to his listeners ears. Who would not think so with the promise to get rid of the one person that was hurting them the most? This gave hope not only to the “Average Joe” but also to those in political positions that feared to voice their opinions before. His speech gave them hope that they would soon be able to say what they wanted and voice opinions and ideals to improve the state and get it out of the depression they were currently undergoing. I feel, however, that this type of mud slinging would not fly in modern campaigns. Many people are interested in what is going to be done to make changes to issues that are currently going on and not about the skeletons in the opponent’s closet. There is too many opinions being flung around today for a speech like this to have any effect on the voters.
