Rhetorical Analysis Of Ronald Reagan's Speech

The persuasive speech Tear Down this Wall, written by President Ronald Reagan, used logos and pathos to effectively convince the Soviet Union to break down the barrier between East and West Germany. To start, Reagan utilized logos while delivering his plausible address. The author stated the vital fact that “East and West do not mistrust each other because we are armed; we are armed because we mistrust each other” (Reagan). This statement helped support the fact that the two countries had to overcome their several differences to be able to reunite Germany once again. Reagan urged the Soviets to do their part in bringing the divider down in that specific section. The other device Reagan used was pathos to give the speech more meaning and depth.

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.

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.

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.

Ronald Reagan, the fortieth president of the United States, was formerly an actor and a politician. While studying economics and sociology in college, he acted in school plays and became a radio sports announcer, and from that, he began starring in movies which gave him a lot of popularity, leading to becoming elected in the elections. One of his most notable speeches is "Tear Down This Wall", Reagan addressed it the Brandenburg Gate in Germany on June 12, 1987, in which he was calling out the Soviet Union leader, Mr. Gorbachev, asking him to "tear down the wall" referring to the Berlin wall. He addressed this speech to Mr. Gorbachev aspiring to seek peace and prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe. In this speech, the appeal of pathos is used to emotionally move the audience to create excitement, logos in the form of facts to make reasonable arguments and ethos to show how trustworthy he is.

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.

The person I choose for this topic is Ronald Reagan, he is a big part on how the Cold War ended. Russia, as everyone knows, has always been competitive with the U.S.A, the two countries always go back and forth with each other to be the first at everything. Now the Berlin Wall had been there for some time, ever since 1961. The communist government of Eastern Germany created the wall because they wanted to prevent disaffected people who were trying to fleeing to the West. But with this little did they know the trouble it would cause for the future. There were four powers during the time, Russia, France, Britain, and the United States. Berlin was in the Russian sector, but because the powers were only split amongst four countries it became a

He used some of the outspoken anti-Soviet speech used by an American president since the early 1960’s, he, for example, said that Soviet leaders “reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat” (Schulzinger, 1994, p. 16). This hostile opinion led to him giving up on détente, an approach his predecessors had used in dealing with the Cold War. Détente is a term used for trying to establish better relations between countries that dislike and distrust each other. At his news conference on January 29, 1981, Reagan said: “Well, so far détente has been a one-way street that the Soviet Union has used to pursue its own aims” (Reagan, 1981). This quote shows Reagan’s radical approach in ending détente and his feelings; he did not want to continue steady relations with the Soviet Union. Reagan felt like the U.S was the only one trying to create a better relationship and therefore did not see any use in continuing

Mikhail Gorbachev is a foreign leader who worked with Reagan and also wanted to eliminate communism. If the Soviet Union collapsed, then all influences of communism would stop, which is what Reagan and Gorbachev wanted (Marsico, 84). The nation as a whole agreed that they did not want communism to spread beyond the borders of East Germany and seep into their culture. During the span of 1985-1988 five meetings between the Americans and the Communists negotiated issues of diplomacy. By the early 1980’s the Soviets had built up weaponry which was almost comparable to America’s weaponry, but as the decade went on the Soviets were unable to keep up (Marsico, 84). This inferiority pleased the American people. By 1991 the cold war had concluded. on June 12, 1987, Reagan asked Gorbachev helped to eliminate the oppressive influence that communism had outside of the soviet union (Marsico 85-86). He wanted to stop the influences so that communism would not spread any further than it already had. Standing beside the berlin wall, which separated East and West Germany, Reagan gave a speech which reminded every one of the differences between the two sides. General Secretary Gorbachev” Reagan challenged him, “if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the soviet union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate, Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this wall!”

Reagan integrates ethos, pathos, and logos to represent a solemnly optimistic tone which helps illustrate to the audience that we as a whole can overcome this tragedy for the future. Reagan uses a mixture of ethos and pathos during his speech to appeal specifically to the schoolchildren, parents, and family members who knew those from the incident. Reagan states that he and his wife are “pained to the core by the tragedy.” And that he knows “ it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things happen.” Reagan also uses logos during his speech. He refers to a perhaps forgotten famous quote by Sir Francis Drake. Drake said, “He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it.” Reagan says that we can compare what Drake said and refer it to the Challenger’s team dedication.

"Give me a challenge and I'll meet it with joy.” Ronald Reagan described the five astronauts and two payload specialists who died in the Challenger explosion, about six hours after the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its launch. Ronald Reagan’s Address to the Nation would be broadcasted on television and radio nationwide. In this speech, Reagan tells us that this is a day to remember and mourn the loss of the brave challenger crew. Reagan argues that we are pioneers on space travel, and while this is a tragic loss, we must continue to expand our knowledge of space and keep exploring the “Final Frontier.”

Ronald Reagan 's speech at the Brandenburg gate was one of the most impactful and important speeches given during the cold war, and aided in the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union. Reagan begins his speech by addressing the people present and recognizing the “freedom” and “feeling of history” of the city of Berlin has. He makes his first reference to previous speakers by saying, “Twenty four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, and speaking to the people of this city and the world at the city hall. Well since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn to Berlin. And today, I, myself, make my second visit to your city,”( Reagan 361) Ronald Reagan adeptly utilizes Ethos Pathos and Logos in his Brandenburg Gate address, he attempts to sway the audience of the importance of success of the marshal plan and western values as a whole, and convince the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open up the barrier which had divided West and East Berlin since 1961.

In the year 1987, June 12th at Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin Germany, President Ronald Reagan gave one of the most memorable speeches (Berlin Wall) a president has given. The Berlin Wall speech changed Berlin completely, it reunited east and west berlin back together. The speech itself was intended for the people but most importantly it was meant for the soviet union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, President Ronald Reagan was an American Politician and also was an actor that appeared in over 50 films. This shows that even though he was our president he had a chose to visit berlin or not and give a speech that later on caused the wall to fall. To achieve this speech Ronald Reagan used rhetorical devices, such as Ethos, Rhetorical Question, Tone,

Due to Reagan’s wise choice of timing and location, his “Tear Down This Wall” speech had a great impact on Cold War tensions and helped lift oppression from the city of Berlin. Although on the surface, Reagan’s intentions seemed obvious. A look deeper can reveal larger picture goals and a much larger audience. In the end, Ronald Reagan’s speech sent a message of freedom and Democracy throughout Europe and North