Fallacies In Citizen Kane's Speech

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In Citizen Kane’s famous speech, due to its length I was able to identify few examples of bias, fallacies, and rhetorical devices. One example I could pinpoint was that of when he proposed to speak to the lower class people and the under-paid. Kane made it seems as if Boss Jim Getty didn’t understand their needs therefore he (Kane) would make it more than a promise to take care of the lower class specifically. The Argumentum Ad Populum Fallacy suggests that of attempting to win popular assent to a conclusion by arousing the feeling and enthusiasms of the multitude. Therefore, we can conclude that Citizen Kane advertized his feelings towards the lower class and how the people can expect his best interests into making it better for them. There is also the Irrelevant Conclusion fallacy since Kane had predetermined his victory over the campaign without knowing if he had won. I also noticed that Kane used words like under-privileged, under-paid, and under-fed instead of poor, low-income, and hungry. These words are called Euphemisms which are words that sound more appealing to the audience and help avoid…show more content…
I felt Kane’s argument was a bit ineffective since he kept focusing more on Jim Getty (his competition) thus making him look like a bad person. It seemed as if Boss Jim Getty had committed some crime, however Kane did not explain what he had done wrong. I do feel that he made those who were classified in the lower-class happy that someone wanted to do something to help them. However, Kane forgot to mention what his promise to help this class of people would entitle. I believe that without mentioning what you would like to do in order to help people out you leave the audience doubting if your promise will live up to it. In his speech, Kane talks about making the promise and how he is too busy arranging to keep them, however he never truly stated what those promises were in

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