The Proper Place for Sports Rhetorical Analysis

                The speaker is Theodore Roosevelt. The occasion is sports during the early 1900s.  The audience is his son, Ted Roosevelt. The purpose is to tell his son the importance of knowing when to play sports and when not to play sports. The subject is the way sports can affect Ted and he has a jolly tone and a willing to let Ted do what he wants. In this letter, Theodore writes to his son regarding the interest his son has for playing football. Not only is he encouraging towards it but also offers some of his own thoughts and opinions towards the topic through rhetorical strategies like allusion, analogy and anaphora.

Roosevelt uses allusion in his letter to coax his son not to let sports take over his duties. He tells his son, Ted, that he is very proud of him making the team although he is worried for Ted’s safety. He doesn’t want to distress his son by telling him this, but he must. He uses Pliny to show how sports can affect someone in a negative way. He uses the example of sports distracting the Greeks from protecting themselves as a lesson of what it could do to Ted. Ted, like the Greeks, can become sidetracked and absorbed in football and forget the responsibility of doing well in school. He is concerned that Ted won’t be able to make the right choice of keeping himself from being distracted like the Greeks were.

While writing to his son, Roosevelt is trying to explain that being good at sports is a good thing. In an attempt to make his assertion simpler and easier to grasp, Roosevelt uses a metaphor. In this metaphor he compares “athletic proficiency” to “a good servant”. This metaphor indicates that being good at sports is good because it can help with nearly anything just like a good servant. He could also be inferring that by being good at sports, he is more inclined at other basic physical activities, just like a servant is good at nearly any job related to helping his master. This metaphor, granting it not being a major aspect in his letter, did however send a very meaningful message to Roosevelt’s son.

Roosevelt uses anaphora to accent the fact that his son should not put his body in harms way. When writing to his son, Ted, he gives him the pros and cons of playing football at Harvard. “I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate into the sole end of any one’s existence. I don’t want you to sacrifice standing well in your studies to any over-athleticism; and I need not tell you that character counts for a great deal more than either intellect or body in winning success in life.” Here Roosevelt uses anaphora to show his son he does not want him to injure himself. So he stresses the fact that there is more to being a good person than being smart or athletic…one must have character. Theodore Roosevelt uses anaphora in his letter to set Ted straight by putting emphasis on his ideas and giving him a look into how he became such a great man.

In conclusion, in this letter, Theodore writes to his son about his interest for playing football. Not only is he willing to keep an open mind towards it but also offers some of his own thoughts and opinions on the topic at hand through rhetorical strategies like allusion, analogy and anaphora. After reading this Ted Roosevelt definitely knew what the proper place for sports was.

“Allusion Taylor Delosh, 1-25-10.” examplesofrhetoric.com n.p

          14 August,2014. Web. 10/26/2014

“Metaphor, Edward Meagher, 3-16-10.” examplesofrhetoric.com n.p

         16 March,2010. Web. 10/26/2014

“Campianickanaphora2-16-10.” examplesofrhetoric.com. n.p

         16 March,2010. Web. 10/26/2014

“The Proper Place for Sports, Theodore Roosevelt, p. 449” examplesofrhetoric.com n.p.

          2 March 2014. Web. 10/26/2014