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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Eulogy Of Ronald Reagan

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The passing of who was once Ronald Reagan was one that affected not only the United States, but also the world. It was a loss we all felt, but it was felt more by those close to him. Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain was one who's Reagan's death affected at a more personal level. During her eulogy she's described him as a great president, American and friend with the usage of rhetorical strategies such as anaphora, repetition, comparison, parallelism, her usage of pathos and ethos and the strong personalizing, to describe him and pay her respect to him. Ronald Reagan, while many things, one of his biggest accomplishments is his long presidency. Thatcher in her eulogy used repetition, comparison and emphasis on his …show more content…

During her eulogy, she discusses his effort against Russia throughout his presidency, and the victory against them is one of Reagan's greatest accomplishments. She creates a picture of a comparison between Reagan, who is presented as the hero and Russia as the villain. It is clear that Thatcher sees Reagan as a great leader of our country, she paints him as a powerful leader who defeated a threat towards us and showed great skills to be able to rule and lead our country. Thatcher repeatedly mentions Russia throughout her eulogy, when talking about them, she uses words such as "enemies" "evil empire" "weaknesses" "failures" and "communism" a drastic contrast from the words she used for him such as " freshness" "a man of good" "sincere." The contrast alludes to the idea that Reagan was the good guy, who defeated the evils of Russia, a proud success of his presidency. This is a comparison she regularly uses throughout her eulogy. Thatcher alludes to the idea of Reagan being a great president in lines 30-39. Thatcher uses anaprophy by repeating the word "Others.." for example "Others prophesied..." "Others saw..." and "Others hoped..." This helped emphasizes all the work he did, work

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In Reagan’s eulogy Thatcher uses pathos to unite herself with the audience, through the mutual feelings of grief and sorrow over losing a friend. In the opening lines of the eulogy Thatcher creates pathos by using diction. In lines one and two Thatcher said that a “Great President… Great American… Great man….” has died. Her choice of using the word great instead of good or any other adjective, effects the audience by showing what kind of man Reagan was. Since death is a universally known topic, it is safe to say that everybody has experienced the pain of losing a great person to death.

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One minute and thirteen seconds. The last entry on the flight transcript: LOSS OF ALL DATA. On January 28, 1986, the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded 73 seconds into its flight. Aboard were five astronauts, one of whom, Christa McAuliffe, was ready to become the first school teacher in space. Sadly, none of the five survived.

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Being personal is a good way to unify people. In this speech President Regan uses a rhetorical canon; which is style, effectively. President Reagan personalizes his speech by talking directly to the families of the fallen heroes. Personalizing the speech was a good choice because it is a more effective way of talking about the situation rather than just talking about the incident an informing what happened. Also his choice of using the words “us” and “we” triggers unity among the nation.

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The first sentence states,” Others prophesied the decline of the West. He inspired America and its allies with renewed faith in their mission of freedom .” In the first six sentences , she repeatedly uses “Others” (Reagan’s rivals) and “He” (President Reagan) as opposites facing each other during the climax of the Cold War. Next, Thatcher uses dialogue spoken between President Ronald Reagan and the leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva Summit. When talking about problems plaguing both the first world and second world powerhouses, Ronald Reagan told the leader of the country that he had been in constant conflict, “Let me tell you why we distrust you.”

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Informing Americans that she worked with Reagan for eight years lets the citizens know that Thatcher and Reagan could have possibly knew a lot about each other. Thatcher uses ethos successfully in her eulogy because Americans can believe every single word that she says about

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Overall, Reagan used the rhetorical device ethos to express his knowledge, and integrity in order to persuade the audience of knocking the Wall of Berlin down. Besides the rhetorical device ethos, Reagan also used logos to influence the readers of no longer having the Wall of Berlin. Reagan states, “And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom.” (2) The quote explains how the Soviets have started to progress their comprehension of the significance of freedom. Reagan proposed knocking down the Wall of Berlin, and how this would spread freedom; therefore, since the Soviets started to realize the significance of freedom, then it would only be logical to knock down the wall in order for the Soviets and others to fully comprehend the importance of freedom, rather than understand it in a limited way.

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The speech conducted by former President Ronald Reagan titled “Evil Empire” was to address the National Association of Evangelicals. The speeches main topic is to focus on the evil that is among us. Former President Reagan conducted this speech at the time Congress was debating on a resolution for nuclear freeze. The speech’s main point is to inform and give hope to Christians to make sure America stays a free and great country.

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In Margaret Thatcher's 2004 eulogy for Ronald Reagan, she uses many rhetorical strategies to convey her message that Ronald Reagan was a strong president who remained positive throughout the problems he faced with in office. The first rhetorical strategy Thatcher uses is the incorporation of loaded words with strong positive connotations. She uses words like “cheerful” (line 3), “invigorating” (4), “optimism” (13), and “grace” (22) to describe Reagan’s attitude and actions during his presidency. She also uses phrases like “lightness of spirit” (10) and “renewed faith” (31) to characterize and describe the positivity he approached everything with. Clearly, Ronald Reagan stayed positive, as Margaret Thatcher said he did.

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She uses informal diction to show her relationship between her and the deceased. Thatcher even calls the former president “Ronnie” to reflect on her personal and work relationship with Reagan. She creates a sense of nostalgia through her use of phrases such as “We talked regularly, both before and after his presidency…” She uses glittering adjectives to illustrate her point on how Reagan was a respectable man and how he was selfless for his country.

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Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time, gave a eulogy to the grieving American people in honor of the late Ronald Reagan on June 11th, 2004. In her speech, Thatcher used rhetorical techniques to show the strength and principles of Reagan and project those values onto the American people. To project the ideas of strength and firm ideals, Thatcher used repetition, elevated syntax and the tone of optimism and sincerity to convey her message. In the beginning of the speech, Thatcher used repetition to show what Reagan had accomplished in his lifetime.

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To present his main points he will put into action during his presidency, Reagan uses logos on several occasions in his speech. Logically structured sentences that show his stance on the old government and a renewed one helps the audience to better understand why he believes what he does. For example, Reagan states, “Those who do work are denied a fair

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Multiple presidents throughout history have presented their Inaugural speeches, but not all have been as influential as a speech presented with complete thought and various rhetorical devices. An inaugural speech or inaugural address is the first speech made by a President at a ceremony; this ceremony is called an Inauguration. In Ronald Reagan's inaugural speech, which was held on January 20th of 1981, he presents many Rhetorical Devices in which engage both to the audience's emotions and provide information throughout his whole speech. Ronald Reagan used many rhetorical devices and got his point across to the people which made his inaugural address nothing short of excellent. The first Rhetorical Device Ronald Reagan used in his Inaugural speech was the use of Pathos.

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