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Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat

Read the following extract from Winston Churchill's first speech as Prime Minister to the House of Commons. The enemy of whom Churchill speaks is Hitler's Germany. After you have read the speech, answer the questions below.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

From Winston Churchill's first speech as Prime Minister to House of Commons

… We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, "come then, let us go forward together with our united strength." ...

1. Re-write the above text in one or two sentences:

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2. Were things as bad as Churchill said, or was he exaggerating? How could Churchill benefit from the use of hyperbole (exaggeration)?

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3. Churchill repeats several words over and over again. What words does he repeat, and what sort of effect does the repetition have on the piece?

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