I think that Roosevelt’s upbringing, background and character did not make it easy for him to understand the concerns and fears of ordinary Americans. Franklin Roosevelt was the president of America from 1933 to 1945. His family was wealthy and he was educated in schools of top quality, before that his mother taught him until 14. There are many things that made it uneasy for Roosevelt to understand the concerns and fears of ordinary Americans. His mother, Sara Roosevelt is one of the reasons.
Since Roosevelt’s father was elderly and remote, Sara was the dominant influence in Franklin’s early life, she was extremely possessive of him, when FDR was young he was taught by his mother, and during this time she made sure that Roosevelt stayed around the area of rich people, and so he did not have the chance to get in touch to the minor class to really understand how they lived. This links to the second reason, that Franklin grew up in an atmosphere of privilege. Franklin when he was young had the chance to learn many different hobbies, such as riding, shooting, polo and lawn tennis, and he also frequently traveled around Europe.
This is certainly not the majority of the ordinary Americans could experience. Also, Franklin went to Groton school, a very privileged school, where he met a lot of rich friends, this again limited the chances for him to understand the concerns of ordinary Americans. Also, Roosevelt’s character when he was young also didn’t help him understand the Americans. As he was spoilt and had a privileged life, he was arrogant, smug and superficial. This made it uneasy for him to know what the ordinary Americans’ concerns and their fears.
Roosevelt was also an idealist and dreamer, and his ideas were often unrealistic. His thoughts lacked real direction yet he moved from one idea to another very quickly and tended to compromise. He found it difficult to follow things through, and what ordinary people wanted and related to be day-to-day ideas. This character of him was seen in his quarantine speech in 1937, when he suggested an alternative way to avoid war in Europe and Asia, and was heavily criticized, therefore this character of him made it less easy for him to understand the ordinary Americans.
However, when Roosevelt got older it became easier for Roosevelt to understand the concerns and fears of ordinary Americans. Although when Roosevelt went to Groton School, and his classmates were rich, he was nevertheless heavily influenced by his headmaster, Endicott Peabody, who preached the duty of Christians to help the less fortunate and urged his students to enter public service, so he became more close to the ordinary Americans and it was easier for him to understand the concerns and fears of them.
Apart from this, when Roosevelt was studying in Harvard, his distant cousin Theodore Roosevelt was elected President, and Theodore’s vigorous leadership style and reforming zeal made him Franklin’s role model, and he adopted Theodore’s style and zeal. These factors all helped Roosevelt to understand the Americans and how to govern the country. Also, after in 1921 when Roosevelt was struck by polio, his character improved much more, he was less arrogant, less smug, less superficial and become more focused, warm-hearted.
Roosevelt reached out to the public to know them, to understand them, to pick up their emotions and to put himself into their shoes. This certainly helped him to understand the concerns and fears of the Americans, and this was also how the public was convinced to vote for him in the election in 1932. Roosevelt was also greatly involved with the social work when he was the senator of New York, this again helped him to understand the ordinary Americans, and was also helpful during his presidency when USA was hit by the Great Depression.
In conclusion, Roosevelt’s upbringing did not make it easy for him to understand the concerns and fears of ordinary Americans, he was spoilt and sheltered by his mother, lived in an atmosphere of luxuries and attended a private school. In his early teens, his character also did not help too, he was arrogant, smug and superficial. However, Roosevelt learnt to understand the ordinary Americans through his headmaster and his cousin Theodore Roosevelt. Also, as he grew older, he became more mature, and his character became much better dramatically.
