Roosevelt was an only child born to two rich parents and spent the first years of his life at their beautiful but isolated estate called springwood. He had very little contact with other people while growing up and had virtually none with children his own age. He was even privately tutored rather than sent to school and was very spoilt by his family.
When he reached the age of 14 he was finally sent to a preparatory school where he would come into contact with more people his age. After graduating he enrolled at Harvard university where he majored in history and earned fair grades. Roosevelt then entered Columbia University Law school but he had very little interest in law and left before he graduated. After working for a while as a legal secretary at a law firm, he quit his job as he didn’t need to work to support himself and became involved in politics.
This relatively sheltered and padded lifestyle would make may people think it unlikely that he ever could empathise with the general public as his own life had been so different. He ha everything money could buy and he had all the financial security that they lacked. However, beneath the polished exterior of Roosevelt’s life there were many challenges and sorrow which may have given him the insight into the life of the poor American.
Although Roosevelt was brought up by a very affluent family, he was taught from an early age that, with the money he had, came a responsibility to the poor. He never forgot that lesson especially when he became president.
The first half of Roosevelt’s life, though sheltered, cushioned and protected, must also have been very lonely. Denied of the companionship of someone his own age when growing up he must have felt the boredom and yarning of those who are ultimately alone. He felt the loneliness of the american people, and their fear that nobody cared and nobody would help them.
Roosevelt never learned completely how to interact with people his own age and this became evident during his school years. The other boys viewed him as ‘sad and lonely’. However, despite this, instead of moaning and complaining, Roosevelt put a brave face on his misery and when writing home to his mother, lied to please her:
‘Dear mama, getting on with the other fellows. No black marks for lateness yet’
What make Roosevelt strongest though, was Roosevelt’s struggle against his own body. While taking a holiday at Campobello Island New Brunswick in the summer of 1921, Roosevelt contracted poliomyelitis, better know as polio. The road to recovery was a long and painful one taking all of Roosevelt’s great will. Although he valiantly continued to fight and win over his crippling illness, he still ended up crippled from the waist downwards, unable to walk without aid or heavy leg braces.
Roosevelt’s illness caused him to become stronger, he had overcome a great personal trial and he saw his own disability as a parallel with the ‘humiliations and defeat of depression America’, he had conquered his own devils and he was confident that he could conquer America’s.
Roosevelt’s birth did not make it easy for him to understand the fears of ordinary Americans, but his trials after the initial few years gave him a sense of sympathy for them. He saw the loneliness of the people and after feeling some of his own he was able to understand having been through it. His struggle against polio made him even more conscious of the struggle of depression America, he saw the loss of hope and the suffering of the people and he was able to empathise it with his own struggles when hope was bare and the world was difficult.
