The Marshall Plan: Analysis

The Marshall Plan: Analysis

Symbols, Motifs, and Rhetorical Devices

Rhetoric

LogosMarshall had the option really, of going for logos, ethos, or pathos. Pathos seems like it would have been the natural place to go with it, too. He had literal starving children to point to…...

Structure

If There's a Problem, Yo I Solved ItMarshall structures his argument in perfect logical format. He establishes the problem, discusses the parameters of the problem, and then proposes a solution bas...

Tone

Grim, Yet HopefulMarshall writes like the kind of man who's seen the best and the worst that human race has to offer. Maybe that's what happens when you live through two World Wars. Seriously, the...

Writing Style

Know Your AudienceMarshall delivered this speech at Harvard, and his goal was to convince them first. He opens with an appeal to their intelligence in the very second sentence:"That must be apparen...

What's Up With the Title?

The speech is generally known as "The Marshall Plan Speech," though it didn't have an official title when he delivered it. Though there were many people involved in the policy, Marshall was the Sec...

What's Up With the Opening Lines?

It's important to note here that there are two versions of the speech, and the only place they differ is with the addition of new opening and closing lines. Basically, he had a version that he inte...

What's Up With the Closing Lines?

Remember, Marshall had two versions of the speech: the official and the transcription. The official version was the one he intended to give, while the transcription was, well, transcribed from the...

Tough-o-Meter

(3) Base campSome of Marshall's phrasing is a little tough, but it's nothing you can't handle. 1940s English is pretty much the same as modern English…except adorable slang like chrome-dome (bald...

Shout-Outs

In-Text ReferencesLiterary and Philosophical ReferencesJohn Maynard KeynesMarshall never mentions Keynes directly, but he was pretty much the Beatles of economics at the time. He believed that the...

Trivia

The Molotov Cocktail, a generic term of an improvised incendiary explosive, is named after the architect of the Molotov Plan. But not for that reason. (Source)The "S" in "Harry S. Truman" stands fo...