Introduction

The Second World War was a global conflict, that lasted from 1939 to 1945. This great event had huge consequences in the life of many people and many countries.

Even though the United States didn’t participate in the war from the very start, its role and contribution were not just important for the Allies, but important for the development of the country as a result of one of America’s most important victories.

There is no doubt the president of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, played an important role in encouraging the country to be courageous when the war arrived and stressing the important fact that America should go to war because they were defending the greatest ideals of all times.

These ideals were mainly presented in the 1941 State of the Union Address, commonly known as “The Four Freedoms speech”. In it, Roosevelt shared a powerful vision of the country and the world. In his vision, all people should have 4 freedoms: freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from want and fear.

Nonetheless, few people know that the great speech delivered by President Roosevelt was far from being the spirit that encouraged America to go to war. Rather, many people would say what some newspapers said back in 1941: “The President’s Four Freedoms might sound noble at first, but ultimately give off a hollow, empty sound”.[1]

A little bit later, the already renowned illustrator Norman Rockwell decided to give life to the President’s speech, attempting to help, with the means he had, to the great cause of the Allies.

The combination of the “Four Freedoms” speech and the way it was portrayed is the aim of this work. The work will delve into the historical aspects that caused the famous speech that was meant to encourage all of America.

After this, I will explain briefly how Norman Rockwell came up with the specific paintings that tried to express all the meaning from the president’s speech.

Finally, I will mention the influence of the paintings in American society. I hope this brief research can help the reader to realize some of the elements that a single event is surrounded by, and to reflect on the important approach the study of Humanities can contribute in the way we study world events. “The job was too big for me … It should have been tackled by Michelangelo.”[2]

(From left above to right below) The Four Freedoms paintings: Freedom of speech, Freedom of worship, Freedom from want, and Freedom from fear. Norman Rockwell

Chapter 1: The President

A New Challenge

Franklin D. Roosevelt became the 32^nd President of the United States in 1933, during one of the most difficult moments in American history, the Great Depression. With the program that was known as “New Deal” President Roosevelt gave aid to farmers, kept a balanced budget, which in those years was crucial to reform several aspects of the economy that had caused the collapse in previous years.

President Roosevelt was able to stabilize the economy of the country, which favored his reelection in 1936, 1940, and 1944.

It seemed, back in 1939, that President Roosevelt had overcome his major challenge (The 1929 Great Depression) nevertheless, Franklin Roosevelt would know that a new challenge was to begin.

On September 1^st, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later, France and the United Kingdom declared the war to Germany.

As soon as the war broke out in Europe, President Roosevelt urged Congress to revise the neutrality acts to permit belligerents. When France fell in the spring of 1939 by Germany, Roosevelt supported Britain with “all aid short of war”[3].

All these events made President Roosevelt to think deeper in some ideals to encourage American people in such difficult moments. Roosevelt wanted to provide moral help for the people whose rights were being threatened by war.

Therefore, what Roosevelt intended to do was not just convey a speech that could help as a supporting consolation for Americans who were seeing the atrocities of war, but also for the world, as a way of assuring once more the ideals of universal human goodness.

President Roosevelt watched the situation in Europe, he saw the terrible things the War has doing in the countries, and therefore He wanted to give an answer, not based on fears, but on freedoms.

Roosevelt tried to do what he did before he became President: to tell people they will fight for a better world: “This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and prosper,” he asserted, adding, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”[4].

The Four Freedoms’ Speech

 On January 6^th, 1941, President Roosevelt delivered the speech that will be known as “The Four Freedoms speech”.

Formally called the 1941 State of Union address, President Roosevelt pointed out the four fundamental freedoms every single person in the world should enjoy:

• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of worship
• Freedom from want
• Freedom from fear

Although Roosevelt intended to give a profound statement on rights for all people, it is important to mention that the first two freedoms (speech and religion) were already included in the First Amendment of United States’ Constitution. Nonetheless, the inclusion of the other two freedoms (from want and from fear) were beyond the conventional values protected by the American Bill of Rights.

All in all, Roosevelt was really committed to encourage American people to face the War in all respects (helping the “Allied powers”) and at the same time, in a very subtle but effective way, to convince America to abandon the secluded policies and to take a more active participation in the conflict. The President criticized the current policy of intervention, moreover in a moment when Europe was going into a catastrophic situation: “Those, who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety”[5].

The idea that Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech intended to be a justification for war in a longer term, cannot be excluded.

Therefore, the 1941 speech must be studied with a deeper understanding, because the message delivered was meant to resonate with ideals to remain Americans why they should go to war and why that fight was worth of fighting.

At the end of the same year, an event will change the whole scenario for America in the war’s participation. On December 7, 1941, over 200 Japanese aircrafts attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, having around 2,500 Americans killed.

This casualty unified the public to support the immediate action of the country in the war. On December 8, Congress declared war on Japan with only one dissenting vote. At the beginning of the session, President Roosevelt delivered an astonishing speech, which had a great impact in the people.

America entered the war. And as President Roosevelt had predicted, the country would need high ideals to back it up.

A Great Message Not Well Received

President Roosevelt made a huge effort so that his Four Freedoms speech could reach as many Americans as possible. And now that the country was at war, the intention to propagate the message just increased.

Unfortunately, although the most recognized newspapers of those days did stress the importance of the 1941 President’s speech, they didn’t mention at all the Four Freedoms, which were the core of that speech, and the expected ideals to be embraced by the American people who were in the new wartime lifestyle.

Moreover, people who would write letters and telegrams to the White House regarding the speech of 1941, overlooked those 4 fundamental aspects of Roosevelt’s message. “It was not, to say the least, an impressive debut for the Four Freedoms”[6].

As time went on, both the President and his administration realized that the Four Freedoms message, although it had a clear purpose to accomplish, was not being supported by everyday Americans. And that was a huge problem.

But President Roosevelt didn’t get discouraged. The White House continued to highlight the Four Freedoms theme after the attack on Pearl Harbor, sometimes redoubling its efforts.

Vice-president Henry Wallace, for instance, stressed that the President’s Four Freedoms were “the very core of the Revolution by which the United Nations have taken their stand”[7]. And yet, the Administration Office of Facts and Figures was struggling to work on a pamphlet that could explain to America the message of President Roosevelt.

Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms were not popular at all in the first year the United States was at war. Polling results confirmed that more than half of Americans had never heard of the Four Freedoms[8]. Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean they disliked them, it’s just that they seemed too ephemeral, broad and lacking a clear connection with people’s lives.

Something was clear about the Four Freedoms: the speech represented a set of ideals for the nation, in such crucial times. However, something important was missing; they needed a resonating element that would connect with the imagination of Americans. Over two years, the rhetorical power of Roosevelt’s administration couldn’t accomplish that goal.

But there was an illustrator in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, who would take the President’s speech and put it on a canvas.

Chapter 2: The Artist

A New Challenge

Norman Rockwell was born in New York City, in 1894. And one of the things we can say about him is that he was born to become an artist. At a very early age, he joined the Art Students League. Rockwell found success from a very young age. In 1916, he painted the cover for The Saturday Evening Post, a magazine that he considered “the greatest show window in America”[9]. He would continue to do that for the next 47 years.

The most fruitful years of the painter were in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Rockwell is extremely well known for painting iconic representations of American life, the humor, warmth, and nostalgia that can be found in every single of his paintings made him so popular throughout American homes, back in the 1940’s.

The importance of Norman Rockwell’s paintings is just undeniable. Even though it is almost always impossible to depict a country’s culture, lifestyle or traditions without falling into some stereotypes or even clichés, it is also true that “in Rockwell’s paintings, despite the anecdotal qualities that make them so accessible, are in fact important testimonials. Rockwell came to represent the United States(…)”[10].

One of the things that makes Norman Rockwell so touching and loved is his cartoonist and yet accurate style of painting. And even though his entire career will keep the same technique, it is also clear that his work can be divided into 3 major categories.

The first category is basically since he starts working in the Saturday Evening Post Magazine (1916) up to the beginning of World War II.

The style of this first period will be more cartoonist than the other two, but the big difference could be the themes of the paintings: which are more related with everyday American life as well as a funny and sympathetic style.

Figure 5. “Boy with a Baby Carriage” Norman Rockwell

The second period of Rockwell can be traced from World War II (1941), the year United States joins the war) until 1963, when he stops working for the Post. During this time, his paintings will keep the cartoonist style, although he added a nuance of a realistic approach. He included many themes related to the war.

Figure 6. “Rosie the Riveter” Norman Rockwell

The third and last period of Rockwell goes from 1963 until his death in 1978. This period is recognized by his interests in civil rights, poverty, and space exploration.

Figure 7. “New kids in the neighborhood” Norman Rockwell

In 1941, Norman Rockwell was very aware of the ongoing war that America was fighting in Europe and the Pacific. Like most Americans, Rockwell also wanted to help his nation during the war. Therefore, Rockwell helped paint some posters for the US Army, to promote what Roosevelt had in mind about the ideals worth fighting for.

But after a year, Norman Rockwell couldn’t stop thinking about the idea of portraying the Four Freedoms speech. Even though he confessed he “couldn’t get beyond the first paragraph”[11] of the document, he understood the Four Freedoms were considered by President Roosevelt as the core of what America should fight for.

Norman Rockwell was facing a new challenge in his career. He really wanted to portray a message, an idea extremely important for the nation, but the message he needed to take his inspiration from was anything but inspirational. But like many artists, Rockwell would just need an “eureka” moment to find his way through the painting of the Four Freedoms.

The Four Freedoms’ Paintings

Norman Rockwell tried hard to paint the President’s Four Freedoms in a way all Americans could feel identified and moreover, find worth fighting for. Rockwell found himself generating and discarding various ways to illustrate them. At some point, Rockwell himself considered the Four Freedoms were going to be an artistic end[12].

While Rockwell was in Vermont, by chance he attended a town meeting where one man rose among his neighbors and voiced an unpopular view. His name was Jim Edgerton. Rockwell noticed that the man spoke against a popular motion while the rest of the audience had listened patiently, although they disagreed with him. That moment remained profoundly in Rockwell’s mind.

Suddenly, one night while Norman was sleeping, he randomly woke up with a clear phrase in his mind. “My gosh, I thought, that’s it. There it is. Freedom of speech”[13].

Rockwell went at that moment to tell one of his neighbors that the first image of the Four Freedoms had been revealed at last. Norman Rockwell had found the secret to portray Roosevelt’s speech; though very different from the perspectives of President’s Office. Norman Rockwell would use the style that had been used to characterize his former paintings: “I’ll express the ideas in simple, everyday scenes”[14]

This is how this illustrator would paint President Roosevelt Four Freedom speech. In everyday scenes, Rockwell was sure America would understand the concepts of liberty that they were eager to defend.

Norman Rockwell started that same day at 5 am to paint the 4 canvases, using for each one of them the same principle: everyday scenes.

For freedom of speech, He used a New England town meeting. For freedom from Want, He painted a thanksgiving dinner! The ideas were just popping up in the artist’s mind. “I knew it was the best idea I’d ever had”[15].

The theme for “Freedom from fear” had occurred to Norman Rockwell when he remembered the bombing attack of the Nazi Airforce in Britain, in 1940. He would depict ordinary parents saying goodnight to their children: the special element would be that the dad had a newspaper with a war headline, a subtle detail that everyone would understand.

For “Freedom from worship”, Rockwell depicted another ordinary American scene: several men of different religions chatting in a barbershop (the theme would later change for the one that is known nowadays: many faces of people that portray a different religion or God’s relationships with God).

Norman Rockwell was very excited with his four full-size sketches. And he knew this was the result the Office of War Information couldn’t achieve.

Norman took a train to Washington D.C. but what he was told changed radically his expectations.

Finally, we found ourselves in the Office of War Information (or, to speak plainly, the propaganda department). I showed the Four Freedoms to the man in charge, but he wasn’t even interested. “This war we are going to use fine arts men, real artists”, he said, “If you want to make a contribution, do some of these pen-and-ink drawings”.

I left the office and went back to the hotel. That was the final blow. The next morning depressed and discouraged; we took the train back to New York.

Rockwell thought that was the end of his attempt at painting Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms. But, before arriving to New York, he was asked to have an interview with the new editor of the Post, Ben Hibbs.

Rockwell wasn’t even in the conversation. He was extremely sad and depressed. But in a couple of seconds, the conversation turned into Rockwell’s two-day visit to the capital. After Hibbs asked him what he was doing there, the illustrator told him that he was offering his sketches to the government, but that he had been turned down.

When Hibbs asked him to see the sketches, Norman took them out and started explaining to him what they were all about. Hibbs interrupted him and exclaimed: “Norman, you’ve got to do them for us!”.

Norman needed just a few moments to respond, joyful: “I’ll be delighted to”[16].

An Artwork Very Well Received

Norman Rockwell worked for the whole year of 1942 getting his 4 ideas into 4 great canvases that depicted ordinary and simple American lifestyle and at the same time the great ideals of President Roosevelt’s 1941 Four Freedoms speech.

Even though the process for getting the paintings was anything but easy, Norman Rockwell finally published his four paintings on the Four Freedoms on the Post Magazine cover. The paintings were published in four consecutive weeks, each one of them accompanied by an essay.

The first impressed by the paintings was the President himself. In February 1943, Roosevelt wrote a personal letter to Norman Rockwell thanking him for giving life to the Four Freedoms.

In the letter the President points out the fact that “this is the first pictorial representation I have seen of the staunchly American values contained in the rights of free speech and free worship and our goals from fear and want”[17].

The unique style that Rockwell gave to the paintings is not something that can be taken for granted. In portraying the plain, everyday life of the Four Freedoms, Rockwell was able to connect with the whole country, sharing also the highest values that the President wanted the nation to live out.

What happened next can be described just as the dream Franklin Roosevelt always had in mind. Thousands of letters praising Rockwell’s paintings arrived at the Post‘s head offices and requested copies of them. More than 25,000 readers ordered reproductions for framing in their houses.

The editor in charge, Ben Hibbs would say: “The result astonished us. The American people needed the inspirational message which they conveyed so forcefully and so beautifully”.[18]

The funniest part was still yet to come. Shortly after the great success of Rockwell’s Four Freedoms, The Office of War Information asked the publisher’s permission to use Rockwell’s paintings and to turn them into war posters. The same people who once rejected Rockwell’s paintings, now were asking the illustrator to use his paintings. The answer was yes.

Almost immediately, more than four million copies were created. For the rest of the war, these Four paintings appeared all over the United States: private homes and post offices, libraries, parks, and other public spaces.

But that was just the beginning. Henry Morgenthau Jr., the Secretary of the treasury, was the country’s fundraiser for the war. As soon as he saw the Four Freedoms paintings, he proposed the Post to join in a “Sixteen-city Four Freedoms War Bond Show”. In his idea, the original paintings would travel from stop to stop to get money for war bonds.

The Post agreed. The tour began in Washington DC, and they moved to the West, with cities like Detroit and New Orleans.

Figure 8: “War Bond Show”, Pamphlet, 1943

In January 1943, the War Office Information had already concluded that the president’s ideal was a complete failure. Just three months later, Rockwell changed that idea.

This was a surprising outcome. These two men contributed to do something laudable for the nation, and in very critical moments for the United States. After all, the great speech of President Roosevelt had been very hard to grasp for most Americans. And yet, with a little bit of artistic help, the Four Freedoms paintings became one of the most important bulwarks in American history.

Chapter 3: Influence Today

Some Examples of the Four Freedom’s Influence

Norman Rockwell’s paintings of The Four Freedoms changed the course of the American society at war, in 1943. Rockwell did exactly what Roosevelt intended to do: to give to the country the necessary and correct ideals to fight for and die for.

Nonetheless, more than 70 years after the end of the Second World War, there is a question that comes out: Are these Four Freedoms present today? Are these ideals still valid in 2024, 2025, and beyond? And if that’s the case, why? Why are these ideals and these paintings worth being considered as a model of living?

It is hard to answer all those questions. But we can look at some of the things that the Four Freedoms have left behind and reflect on the impact of the Four Freedoms today.

President Franklin Roosevelt died one day before the surrender of Nazi Germany to the United States. The War had finished, Roosevelt was gone, but his ideals were somehow still present. Samuel Rosenman, one of Roosevelt’s counselors said: “The Four Freedoms were not presented as something from on high; he spoke of them in terms of the desires and needs of all human beings in the world”[19].

A little later, Eleanor Roosevelt, the President’s wife, helped to elaborate the United Nations “Universal Declaration of Human rights”, in 1948, which became part of the International Bill of Rights. In them, Eleanor had presented those four simple and important ideals that her husbands repeated over and over during his Presidency.

President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms had, I believe, an outcome that not even Roosevelt foresaw.

And we can say the same with Norman Rockwell’s paintings. Everyone who looked at those paintings always went back to the message that held a whole country together in difficult times. “He understands us”[20].

On October 17, 2012, hundreds of people gathered in New York to witness the opening of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. The park doesn’t have any type of element that can be explicitly related to Norman Rockwell’s paintings. However, the simple fact that the park has been named with the title “Four Freedoms” should make us think: Would it have been the same if Rockwell had not painted the President’s ideals back in 1943? It is something to think about.

But regardless of whether the credit should be granted to the person who created the speech or to the one who made it possible to remain in people’s hearts, The Four Freedoms and the paintings have become extremely related to each other. Both have helped us to understand the core ideals of the human person just as much as they have helped us to see them not in an ethereal world but applied in our everyday life.

Figure 9: Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park, New York City

Conclusion

“I am most grateful for your invitation to address this Joint Session of Congress in “the land of the free and the home of the brave”[xxi].

These words were pronounced by Pope Francis in a speech to the United States Congress. The quote that he does is from the anthem of United States, presumably written by the poet Francis Scott Key in 1814, in a poem called “The Defense of Fort McHenry”.

This makes me think about the importance of freedom in the United States. This is not just another value or ideal, but a fundamental element of America. America considers freedom as a core value in the country. In that sense, The Four Freedoms paintings portrayed America in a moment of turmoil and need.

Norman Rockwell’s paintings of the Four Freedoms, based on the speech delivered by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941, is a keystone in the history of America as a country who since its origins fought to be citizens of the “land of the free”.

But for me, one of the most important elements of these paintings is that images can shape cultural narratives. There is no doubt Rockwell’s Four Freedoms achieved what Roosevelt always dreamt of but didn’t know how to make it real, how to make it clear for everybody.

As a final idea, I also need to mention the humanistic elements that are present here. The paintings were extremely famous because they speak to people about what is important and true; the value of such high but elemental aspects; to be free, and to recognize that for “everyone in the world”[xxii], these values are not to be negotiated.

As I finish my time of Humanities, I realize this was a very helpful opportunity to discover and to realize once more that we humans are not isolated beings; rather, we yearn for concrete and deep things within our hearts and, many times, we cry out in many ways to express these desires: “Whatever is true, (…) whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things”[xxiii].

I hope this work can be helpful as another means to understand how a simple aspect of our history is related to other factors and events, and at the end, how these factors working together also affect us and our society.

[1] S. PLUNKETT, Enduring Ideals, Abbeville Press Publishers, New York, 2018, p. 37

[2] Ibidem

[3] BRITTANICA, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Feb 26, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Franklin-D-Roosevelt, (referenced on Mar. 6th, 2024)

[4] F. ROOSEVELT, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933, https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/fdr-inaugural, (referenced on March 13, 2024)

[5] F. ROOSEVELT, 1941 State of the Union address, Jan 6, 1941, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-franklin-roosevelts-annual-message-to-congress, (referenced on Mar 12, 2024)

[6] S. PLUNKETT, Enduring Ideals, Abbeville Press Publishers, New York, 2018, p. 36

[7] BRITANNICA, Henry A. Wallace, Feb 22, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-A-Wallace, (referenced on March 12, 2024)

[8] RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION, Survey 107, Mar 23, 1942, https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/related-records/rg-208, (referenced on March 12, 2024)

[9] NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM, A brief biography, https://www.nrm.org/about/about-2/about-norman-rockwell/,  (referenced on March 14, 2024)

[10] Ibid.

[11] Ibid.

[12] NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM, Four Freedoms, https://www.nrm.org/2012/10/collections-four-freedoms/,  (referenced on March 12, 2024)

[13] S. MURRAY, Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms, Gramercy Books, New York 1993, p. 19.

[14] Ibid

[15] Ibid

[16] A. GEORGE, Norman Rockwell’s ‘Four Freedoms’ Brought the Ideals of America to Life, February 23, 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/norman-rockwells-four-freedoms-brought-ideals-america-life-180968033/, (referenced on Mar 14, 2024)

[17] Ibid

[18] D. LEAMING, A biography of Ben Hibbs, https://www.proquest.com/openview/7bb8ec47838bc6187a61f7401eae8c57/1?cbl=18750&diss=y&pq-origsite=gscholar&parentSessionId=WhSlV1HdA1XYFTtwcx%2B0wwo1ct2brYxav37D9dfTN%2BQ%3, (referenced on Mar 14, 2024)

[19] S. ROSENMAN, Working with Roosevelt, Harper, 1952, https://archive.org/details/workingwithroose0000rose/page/n5/mode/2up, (referenced on Mar 14, 2024)

[20] Ibid

[xxi] FRANCIS, Visit to the Joint Session of the United States Congress, 24 September 2015, https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/september/documents/papa-francesco_20150924_usa-us-congress.html, (referenced on Mar 14, 2024)

[xxii] Ibid

[xxiii] (Phil 4,9)