Reagan Eulogy Analysis

Two-hundred and nine thousand. That is the number of lives that were nobly given to save the many during the invasion of Normandy (D-day and the Battle of Normandy). The courageous men and women fought continuously for days on end, climbing the jagged cliffs of Normandy, France. Under rifle fire from gun nests from above, the allied troops were able to take control of the coastline, but not without great sacrifice. The speech given by Ronald Reagan was made to commemorate those who fearlessly fought for our country and the many thousands that gave their lives during those hard days of war. His speech had a clear message, to honor and remember those who gave and risked their lives during the invasion of Normandy.

The speaker also continuously used imagery to make the audience feel and see what she was saying. In paragraph one you could see where she says, “He sought to mend America’s wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism” (Thatcher 5-8). This makes people envision Reagan’s goals and aspirations as Thatcher talked about them, this also shows that now with wounded spirits as a result of his death, people must mend them and get through this difficult time. Thatcher used imagery as a rhetoric

Throughout the text, Reagan uses tone to express his pride for America. When he says “But oddly enough it starts with one of the things i’m proudest of in the past eight years: the resurgence of National Pride that I called the new patriotism. This

In the first couple of lines of her eulogy, Thatcher uses parallelism to get a message across about Reagan. Her first words clearly state, “We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man,” (Line # 1-2). Parallelism means to use alike words in the same phrases or clauses. In this instance Thatcher repeats the word “great” three time in a phrase so that the reader could clearly understand that Thatcher believed Reagan was a great person in general. Using this strategy over exaggerates the view Thatcher had on Reagan so that her readers could eventually themselves believe he was a great man. In the next couple of lines, Thatcher again uses parallelism to describe to the reader Reagan’s goals, “He sought to mend America’s wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism,” (Line #6-8). Thatcher uses the words, “mend,” “restore,” and, “free,” which are all actions that mean healing. By using these three words, Thatcher uses Parallelism to express that Reagan was only trying to heal, to help, to save his country and those he could help. This made Thatcher’s readers see Reagan as a type of savior to the United States. Parallelism was used by Thatcher to emphasize her thoughts on Reagan and to draw in her readers so they think the same thing.

Thatcher uses contrast to set Reagan aside from everyone else in the way he ran his country. Once again, using the example of “Others… He…” Thatcher tells of the fear, doubt, and uncertainty many Americans faced, while describing Reagan as the great inspirational leader who boosted morale, spread reassurance, and brought back hope into the suffering peoples’ lives. Contrasting this heroic president to devastated citizens helps to portray him as a ray of light during dark times.

I feel that the substance and context of Reagan’s speech were eloquently put. Reagan states that "nothing ends here" the space shuttle program will continue. President Reagan came across with certainty, respect, gratitude and compassion. Reagan also appeared strong but comforting. Reagan only had a short period of time to prepare for the speech which to me only solidifies his

Another device Reagan used were the use of Pathos,Logos and Ethos he did this to give deeper meaning and feeling to his speech some examples of this is when he acknowledges the 7 members who passes all have families and how he is unable to comprehend what they will have to deal with at this difficult time. This makes Reagan seem more sincere and less like a scripted robot like speech, this is Ethos.

For the audience he gives them examples of how government interference hurts Americans and also allusions to past times such as the revolution and how the founding fathers did not want a big government. He shares that he has “an uncomfortable feeling that this prosperity isn’t something on which we base our hopes the future.” Reagan’s ability to connect with his audience was rare and unlike many of his colleagues. Whether the topics he spoke on were always relevant to that of the listener, it did not always matter.

Thatcher opens her eulogy to Ronald Reagan by highlighting his good-natured personality that he displayed during his Presidency. She mentions that because of his “cheerful and invigorating” persona, many forgot about the “daunting historic tasks he set himself.” Thatcher quotes Arnold Bennett that Reagan embodied “the great cause of cheering us all up,” especially when the world was anxious or in the midst of chaos. By bringing to light to Reagan’s composure and positivity, she creates a favorable image of him as President and thus allows for American citizens to reminisce on the virtues

Her use of informal diction when talking about Reagan and his life allows the audience to get a feeling of closeness to him, even after he died. Margaret Thatcher very rarely uses his full name, compared to the amount of times she uses nicknames or personal pronouns, which allows the audience to join in to the feelings that she is feeling and for them to better understand her position.

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

On the morning of Janurary 28th 1986, the world witnessed in shock and horror what was known as the Challenger disaster as the space shuttle exploded only 73 seconds after its launch, killing all seven crew members onboard including one teacher Christa McAuliffe. Approximately 17 percent of Americans watched the live broadcast of this launch, many of them schoolchildren including those from McAuliffe’s school. From this grave moment emerged an exigency that demands immediate action by the president. Later on that same day, President Ronald Reagan delivered his Challenger address to the nation.

This speech has meaning, excites emotions and reaches out to all, which makes it a great speech. Although Reagan chooses to ignore his administrations responsibility in The Challenger disaster, he concentrates instead on reassurance of the nation which makes this speech uplifting to the American people.

Ronald Reagan gave a speech in Orlando, Florida on March 8, 1983 called, “The Evil Empire.” This speech was intended for the ears of all Americans and is one of the best known presidential speeches ever given. In his speech, Reagan uses multiple rhetorical strategies such as; metaphors, allusions, rhetorical questions, tone, pathos, and uses references from the bible. He talks about all the main points of abortion, teenage sex, drugs, the Soviet Union, and the practice of praying and God in our public schools. His speech was very well written, moving, and extremely influential. This speech shows the president’s belief that the