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Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Speech

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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. The author repeated the word ‘to’ and a verb to show the vastness of his reach. Reagan wanted “to mend” America’s spirit, “to restore” strength in the world and “to free” (6-7) those in communist countries. These hard tasks to accomplish were met by Reagan with what Thatcher called “a lightness of spirit” (10). By repeating …show more content…

In the beginning, Thatcher was sincere and used her personal experiences to show he had a “grace of a deeper kind” (23). By being sincere, Thatcher built her effectiveness and her ability to sympathetic. By the end of the speech, her tone switched to optimistic. While the rest of her speech was emotional and sincere, the last paragraph shows the hope for the future of the country, even through they have lost an exceptional former president. In the last sentence of the speech, Thatcher states that American stands for “freedom and opportunity for ordinary people” (98). Even through the country is facing a time of disbelief and sadness, Thatcher’s optimistic outlook and tone shows the strength and values of Reagan. Throughout the piece, the messages of strength and firm beliefs are shown to the reader. Specifically, Thatcher wants the reader to take with them the optimism for the future. By being optimistic, she is telling the Americans ti grieve but to move forward and be a light in the darkness, just like Reagan was decades

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