Analysis Of Ronald Reagan's Speech

Reagan spoke with passion and sorrow. But he showed an appreciation and respect for those who fought. He uses the word “we” very often, which unites the people and shows union. In his speech he uses the word we 19 times to show the bond between us as a people, and as a nation. He uses rhetorical questions asking why they served and fought till their last breath. “You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.”(Reagan). He answers his questions with love and loyalty for their families and their country. Reagan uses this in his speech to make the audience think deeply about why the men did what they did and

Due to the rapidly changing America, in his farewell address, Ronald Reagan expresses the need for unification of America, and America’s culture. In Reagan’s address, he uses many rhetorical devices to advance his purpose of unifying America, for instance, Reagan utilizes tone, syntax, and pathos to portray his pride, hopefulness, and patriotism for America. He uses these devices to show Americans of the unification America needs.

Ronald Reagan, the former 40th president of the United States died on June 5th of 2004. A couple of days later on the 11th, Margaret Thatcher the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, wrote an eulogy for Ronald Reagan. In this eulogy, Thatcher uses rhetorical strategies to convince her readers into believing what she states. She uses the strategies of parallelism, pathos and diction to get her message out and to help her reader receive it. And thus Thatcher can convince her readers into believing what she says.

Reagan adds his feelings of faith and respect in our space program and the people at NASA who make it possible. He goes on to assure that space exploration will continue. While addressing the school children who were watching, Reagan states that "the future belongs to the brave." He also states unfortunately painful things like this sometimes happen and sadly it is all part of the process of exploration and discovery(Reagan)”. He ends his speech with a beautifully articulated conclusion. ”The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, or the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God(Reagan).” “The last line was taken from a sonnet written by WWII pilot John Gillespie Magee titled "High Flight", but was a very memorable way to end the speech.

President Ronald Reagan’s speech “A Time for Choosing” was my selection for this assignment. Prior to his presidential election, Ronald Reagan was catapulted forward in his career by his motivational speech later titled by some simply as “The Speech”. At the time, Regan had recently changed from a long-standing Democrat to a Republican. Although his speech was unable to prevent President Lyndon Johnson’s ultimate win, it was very memorable due to the emotionally powerful and deeply moving presentation. Creating an unknown, yet powerful pull for his inevitable position as President. By conveying his points with such an emotional drive, “A Time for Choosing” became one of the most important speeches of his career. The soon to be President delivered this speech with strong words many Americans were not prepared to hear but came to accept. A speech that created many questions and provided many answers managed to express a level of emotion that seemed urgently calm. As one of President Reagans greatest speeches “A Time for Change” provided the world with a preview of a President in the making.

Ronald Reagan is known as “The great communicator” and it shows in his speech, he is able connect to the audience and this works very well for him, his speech “Address to the national challenger” it is a drastically emotional and important speech for the American people at the time it became one of Reagan’s great speeches and it was crucial to the American’s as they were all in such pain due to the accident which was the Challenger disaster. Instead of doing his report on the state union, he talks about the disaster and honors the members who had passed on board and he wishes that the United States will not stop its space exploration due to this. When listening to the speech is it distinguishable that is the speech is not something to joke about and the tone had an emotional and solemn feel with great respect to all involved being felt.

Millions of viewers tuned into the National Broadcasting Company television network for a special broadcast on the 27th of October. Viewers were anticipating Ronald Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” speech. Reagan was acknowledged for his acting in motion pictures and television episodes since 1937, and was now being seen in an unfamiliar role. Reagan emerged in support of the Republican nominee Barry Goldwater. Barry Morris Goldwater was a businessman and five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for president in the 1964 election. “A Time for Choosing” was effective, because he gave personal examples to capture the audiences’ attention, and gave humor to a tough subject.

His speech is stirring, remembering the great contributions to history of fallen and living soldiers of all nationalities who fought for their beliefs in the Second World War. Reagan’s dramatic and detailed descriptions of the heroism of the Army Rangers are skillfully complemented by his use of rhetorical devices such as tetracolon, anaphora, tautology, and synchises. His eloquent yet simple style allows him to weave vivid images of history into his listeners and readers’ minds, adding a new dimension to his speaking. Reagan’s speech surely served its purpose: to commemorate the actions of the Rangers, to commemorate the power of unity, and to commemorate as well as celebrate the dedication, bravery, and spirit that makes the American people

The last element of the rhetorical situation is speech. Reagan’s primary objective of this speech was to show his condolence to those of who suffered from the accident and involve audience to join for grief. Throughout his speech his ideas were carried in a coherent way, without deviating from his objective. Reagan achieved this through using various words and phrases that magnify his emotion. Using phrases such as “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of god” illustrated his feeling towards the situation without much of explanation. In addition, because he understood that the audience of this particular speech consisted of diversity of

The most obvious way President Reagan delivers rhetoric to his audience is through his own ethos. Ronald Reagan wasn’t just your average president; he was a communicator. Reagan started his career as a sports announcer and continued on as an actor, which led to his later career in state and national politics. By the time President Reagan had delivered his address, the president had been in the spotlight his entire career and was looked up to worldwide. He had established an extrinsic ethos well before delivering this speech. By being the president of the free world, Reagan’s audience

Which category of occasion does Reagan’s Challenger address fit into? According to Zarefsky, the occasion of a speech can be ceremonial, deliberative or forensic. A eulogy fits into the category of a ceremonial speech in a way that “it reaffirms a community’s common bonds and values, strengthening ties between individuals and the group”. The Challenger address was first and foremost a eulogy because it was meant to honor and commemorate the deceased Challenger crew; however, there were also deliberative elements in this speech. As Zarefsky stated in his book, deliberative speaking aims to answer the question “What shall we do?” in confrontation with an exigency. In his speech, Reagan deliberately embedded a message regarding “what we shall do” in the wake of the Challenger tragedy and that message was reinforced several times during the address. By calling the Challenger crew “pioneers” and emphasizing “we’ll continue to follow them” and “we’ll continue our quest in space”, the message Reagan wanted to deliver was crystal clear: although what happened to Challenger was tragic, it was part of the cost to all great adventures, and the United States would not cease its space operations

On January 11, 1989, President Ronald Reagan sat at his desk in the Oval Office to address his nation for the final time. This rhetorical moment was not the first of its kind. Rather, the Farewell Address is a Presidential tradition, started by George Washington, that every president takes part in before leaving office. As a sort of “goodbye” to the nation, the President discusses the accomplishments of his administration while offering pieces of advice for the future. Washington warned against a government with an “unmoderated” political party system (Spalding 75), Ronald Reagan warned of the effects of an America devoid of patriotism.

The last element of the rhetorical situation is speech. Reagan’s primary objective of this speech was to show his condolence to those of who suffered from the accident and involve audience to join for grief. Throughout his speech his ideas were carried in a coherent way, without deviating from his objective. Reagan achieved this through using various words and phrases that magnify his emotion. Using phrases such as “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of god” illustrated his feeling towards the situation without much of explanation. In addition, because he understood that the audience of this particular speech consisted of diversity of people, he used words that are more approachable and easy to the audience.

Ronald Reagan, in his speech, (“Berlin Wall”, 1987), the former governor and President of the United States and at the time of the Cold War, “ the most magnetic public figure in the nation”(encyclopedia.com) elucidates to his audience the consequences of residing under the influence of the Soviet Union. Reagan supports his assertion through the use of various rhetorical devices to generate logos, ethos, and pathos. His purpose is to incite a feeling of an injustice done to the people of Berlin and Soviet Allies and to bring down the Berlin Wall as “the most visible symbol of the decades-long Cold War”(History.com) between the Americans and the Soviets during the Cold War. Reagan writes in perfervid tone generated toward the people of Berlin and other Soviet allies in hopes of bringing the Cold War to an end and it is reported by CBS News that he successfully “bolstered the morale of the pro-democracy movement in East Germany”(Brinkley).

Ronald Reagan was more of hen a great man and a beat president, he is probably the greatest man and greatest President this world has ever seen. On June 5, 2004 Ronald Reagan would pass away, and on that day the entire world darkened and wept because of what we had lost. On June 11, 2004, Margaret Thatcher, a former prime minister of England, delivered a eulogy to the people of America in honor of Ronald Reagan. In her speech Margaret Thatcher uses praising diction, ethos, and pathos to show the American people just how great the loss of Ronald Reagan was, and to praise him for not just what he's done, but for the good person he was.