How Does Ronald Reagan Use Figurative Language

Logos is can be seen frequently in this speech. President Reagan was able to use logic to honor the soldiers that fought in the invasion. He used the number of casualties to show

Thatcher shows the reader that even when Reagan had hard times he never showed it and always rose above any problem that he was faced with, nor did he “shrink.” Much like how Thatcher and the rest of the country could not let this hard loss keep them down. She got the reader to understand his accomplishments, through metaphors really showed the depth of the job that Reagan was tasked with, and all he had to overcome. She also used metaphors to show what strong leader he was, and how he emerged from problems and overcame them, as the country will have to do, without him.

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 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.

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.

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.

By using diction that emphasizes the exaggeration of the author’s claims, Kennedy’s speech is able to match the same type of diction used in Webb’s essay that isn’t found in Reagan’s. In Webb’s essay, he uses diction as a way to emphasize

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 rhetorical situation refers to “a situation in which people’s understanding can be changed through messages.” (Zarefsky, 12). The rhetorical situation analysis consists of four elements: audience, occasion, speaker and speech, each assessing the quality of speech. In this essay, I will analyze the rhetorical situation of the historical speech “The Challenger Address” delivered by the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

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.

For instance, parallelism such as the statement, “whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, hear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe,” gives flavor to the speech by pointing out opposite words within a single sentence but still making it work. A few antimetaboles are used in the speech, such as “let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate” and “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” make the speech more effective by twisting around the order of the words, or syntax, to get people to realize a point. Additionally, what makes Kennedy’s speech so effective is that he can transition from a simple sentence to a more complex, meaningful one in a matter of lines of the speech. In accordance to the diction, the words in his speech (freedom, poverty, devotion, and loyalty) are considered abstract. This is because they all convey a tone of desire and significant qualities held by friends. They strengthen and add more feeling to the speech as well. However, the archaic words, such as writ and forebears, are used in a manner to bring in the old language as well as the new, therefore there is sophistication as well as understanding. Kennedy also uses juxtaposition when he says, “peaceful revolution,” and this adds spice to the speech because of the contradiction of the two powerful words. Yet

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.

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.

The first use of metaphors in this speech is, “Yes, let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (Reagan 5). The use of this metaphor is referring to everlasting justice and righteousness in what Reagan believes as the spiritual awakening that is about to initiate in the United States of America. Reagan also uses a simile in “The Evil Empire” speech. The simile he uses is, “We know that living in this world means dealing with what philosophers would call the phenomenology of evil or, as theologians would put it, the doctrine of sin” (Reagan 5). The use of this simile in this speech is stated to show that no matter what we do or what happens we will never be able to fully rid the world of evil. It is inevitable. Human kind will always have to face evil. It is just up to us to battle evil the best way that we can.