Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Speech In Memorial Of Ronald Reagan

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 great Margaret Thatcher, as seen from Ronald Reagan’s eyes, gave a compelling rhetoric eulogy, filled with metaphors, imagery, repetition, and a pathos appeal. This captivating eulogy was about a historical man. Through this eulogy American people could see the man's expenditures, understand what he accomplished, and feel his goals repeatedly.

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.

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 had worked closely with Reagan as a diplomatic ally, as well as a close friend, which is shown through her use of anecdotes. She quoted specifically from Reagan, “Whatever time I’ve got left now belongs to the big fella upstairs,” when she recalled his recovery process following the assassination attempt on his life. Sharing personal stories with her audience helps them to see him through Thatcher’s eyes, as a friend rather than just an executive officer, and relate to him on a more personal level, which makes his death seem even more remorseful when put into perspective.

Jane Addams’ speech explains her stance of George Washington's legacy as a soldier, statesman, and a Virginia planter. In this speech, Jane Addams references George Washington’s accomplishments in his past, including how things would be if he is to be present today. The most significant uses of rhetorical devices in this speech include hypophora, rhetorical questions, enumeratio, distinctio, and metaphors.

Queen Elizabeth’s Speech records the famous speech which, inspired,lead and motivated the English Army towards victory., who were assembled at Tilbury Camp to defend the country against the Spanish Armada. The successful defence of the Kingdom against the invasion boosted the prestige of England's Queen Elizabeth I and encouraged English pride and nationalism. In the speech, Elizabeth motivates her troops by using Ethos,to establish credibility, and Logos, to appeal to logic, reasons and facts.In addition, she uses diction for word choice, tone, and anaphora to deliver inspiration and motivation to the English Army which would lead them to victory towards the Spanish Armada.

A technique Reagan uses is epistrophe, which is him repeating the end of a sentence this technique brings emphasis to the word an example of him using this is when he says “We’re still pioneers. They… were pioneers” when hearing this your attention is brought to pioneers and it does this on purpose which reminds the people of what they were and the importance of their job and what they were really doing and what they had committed to.

This essay will attempt to analyze Ronald Reagan’s Challenger address in terms of the rhetorical situation theorized by Dr. Blitzer and elaborated by Dr. Zarefsky in his book Public Speaking. The effectiveness of the Challenger address will be evaluated by carefully identifying and examining each of the four components of the rhetorical situation within the context of this speech.

Former prime minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher, in her eulogy, describes the strides that Ronald Reagan accomplished. Thatcher’s purpose is to honor Ronald Reagan during his time as a former United States of America President. She establishes a genuine tone in order to appeal to the grief and mournings of American citizens.

In 2004 an elephant in the room was apparent as Margaret Thatcher was giving her eulogy for Ronald Reagan. During this time, the American people were dealing with the War on Terrorists. They had conflicting views on who should go and fight their battle. President George W. Bush had sent our men overseas to Iraq, and the citizens thought of this act as unfair. Margaret Thatcher, though not an American citizen, blended her feelings on this into her speech as though it were the real meaning behind her eulogy.

In the speech “Tear Down this Wall”, the author, Peter Robinson a speechwriter for the White House, attempts to end the divide between East and West Berlin. Robinson wrote the speech; however, former President Ronald Reagan brought it to life when he delivered the speech in West Berlin in June of 1987. Reagan presented this speech in a calm yet persuasive manner, ultimately winning over his immediate Berlin audience. President Reagan’s speech did not just reach Berlin. It was broadcasted all over from Western Europe to North America resulting in Reagan’s tremendous contributions to ending the Cold War. In order to persuade his audience, Reagan uses various rhetorical tools such as suggestions of hope, liberty, and freedom to grab the alienated German forces and reunite the opposing sides.

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.

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).