Ronald Reagan Speech Rhetorical Devices

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Trying to get emotions across to the audience, the President made references to past events in his speech to connect to the crowd. By using this technique, Reagan was able to allude to past events that the people could remember and sympathize with, and relate them to the current crisis. He referenced the day the Apollo I caught fire during a test run and killed 3 people by stating, “Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground” (Reagan). He was trying to show that something somewhat similar has happened like this before, and yet it was not as tragic as a loss in flight. In saying this, he connected to his audience by referencing a past event they could compare it to. President Reagan also