Ronald Reagan Commemorative Speech

Margret Thatcher depicted the greatness of Ronald Reagan in all aspects of his life in a eulogy spoken at his funeral after his unfortunate passing in 2004. Her eulogy accurately describes the legacy of Reagan, his relationships with the American people, and his hardships throughout his presidency. Thatcher used a variety of rhetorical strategies to convey message, and her creative use of these strategies allowed for unison and proper tone within her speech.

The purpose of Reagan's address was to inspire the people to revitalize the American government and rebuild the economy. Reagan emphasizes the importance of returning power to the people, and he motivates the people to take part in improving the economy by calling the everyday working man an "American hero." Reagan creates the argument that a better future is in the hands of the people, not in the hands of the federal government. He specifies that the people are the everyday heroes that keep the economy alive. Reagan builds unity and a sense of togetherness in the American people through the use of rhetorical strategies like Kairos, anaphora, and rhetorical questions. He also drives his argument home by directly addressing the people, and by

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

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.

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

Though connecting the speaker, the audience, and the subject are important for an author, it is also crucial to use literary appeals to draw in readers successfully. One of the appeals used- ethos- shows Safire’s credibility when he was the president’s speechwriter. In addition, logos, which appeals to readers through logic, was displayed since the speech was mourning the astronauts. The mood of what was supposed to be a joyous event becomes somber in that the president has to state the unimaginable disaster that could’ve happened. With this, the author uses pathos by honoring the two astronauts for their mettle and stating that all of America would be mourning them. Also, the tone becomes solemn and encouraging because the author displays the pathos in that way. Safire includes that “ in their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man” which makes the reader feel sad but proud to have such men to “serve” the

Ronald Reagan was an inspirational speaker who planted hope in the minds of Americans through his speeches. He echoed throughout the streets of this democracy what true revolutionary ideas were. His ideas and beliefs rang true within the hearts of our fellow country-men as proven by his landslide second term victory. One of his most famous speeches, his First Inaugural Address, was spoken when he won the race for Presidency in 1980. President Reagan wanted to inspire the American people and inform them of how he planned to run the United States of America. He was not only speaking to his fellow citizens, but

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

Imagine telling millions of people that seven United States citizens were killed in a fatal accident that could have easily been prevented. On January 28, 1986, Ronald Reagan made an address to the nation over the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in the oval office. At 11:38 am on a chilly Saturday morning the shuttle Challenger set out for its adventure for space. No one knew that the lives of Americans nationwide would change dramatically in just one minute. The shuttle exploded at 11:39 am, ending the lives of seven brave men and women. Later that evening, Ronald Reagan made an address to the nation over the tragic event. Ronald Reagan employs the rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos, combined with a heavy hearted tone to show sympathy for the Challenger accident.

Most of the appeal in this speech is to pathos. Very early on in his speech Reagan states, “And so many times I wanted to stop and reach out from behind the glass, and connect. Well maybe I can do a little of that tonight”. This is the beginning of his regard to pathos. With this statement he is trying to make a connection with the people which he did a phenomenal job of doing so. He uses the term “we” throughout the speech because he wants to be sure that the people know and understand that he has served this country for them. Reagan is also sure to make the people apart of his serving time. “I’ve been asked if I have any regrets. Well I do. The deficit is one”, this is another example of Reagan stepping out of his President shoes and admitting that there were mistakes that were made during his term. His intentions are to simply make the American people proud to be Americans.

In Reagan's speech certain communication rhetoric items for effect intensification of treatment were used. First of all, it is certain pathos for showing that the president shares the feelings of Americans: "Nancy [Reagan's wife] and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss."

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

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.

President Reagan read his speech in public with so much care for the people and their families. Some examples that shows that he cares is that in the first paragraph he says “We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country”. This part of speech says a lot because he is referring to that the deaths of the astronauts has not been hard on the families but also on the country. President Reagan wants the audience and the crowd watching to feel the pain and also the astronauts were brave enough to go up in mission without caring about the consequences.