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Culture Documents
Intro:
Describe the two speeches.
Both Lyndon Johnsons Address to Congress and Mark Antonys
speech in Shakespeares Julius Caesar are orations after the
death of the nations leader. Whats interesting is how different
the two are. Thesis: While LBJs speech is a call to action to
honor their fallen leader, Mark Antonys speech is to
defend that their leader was worth honoring.
Thesis:
A final insight you gained into the two pieces, but phrased
generically.
These two speeches were given under similar circumstancesthe
death of the Nations leaderbut vary drastically because of their
audiences expectations. LBJs speech is meant to reassure the
nation, and to give its legislators a path forward, while Mark
Antony is desperately fighting the anti-Caesar mindset in Rome.
The speeches have such different goals ultimately because of how
their subjects (Kennedy or Caesar) were viewed by the public.
These two different speeches, told under similar circumstances,
change so drastically because of the audiences expectations. Its
important for speakers to consider their audience, for if Mark
Antony had addressed his countrymen like Johnson, he would
have likely been run out of town by a mob. Conversely, if Johnson
had spent the bulk of his speech talking about what a great
president Kennedy had been he would have lost an opportunity to
use this moment to advance the causes Kennedy believed in.