President Ronald Reagan governed the United States in the 1980s. At the same time, Margaret Thatcher was the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister. The two leaders weren’t just political acquaintances; they were friends. When Reagan passed away in 2004, Thatcher delivered a heartwarming eulogy to the American people in honor of the President. In the eulogy, Thatcher employs various rhetorical techniques to underscore Ronald Reagan’s greatness as a president and a man. Thatcher begins her eulogy with a simple yet powerful statement. She declares that Reagan was, “a great president, a great American, and a great man, and I have lost a dear friend.” The list builds momentum and ends with a climatic acknowledgment of Thatcher’s grief. In doing …show more content…
She contrasts “the daunting historic tasks” that Reagan faced with his “lightness of spirit” and “cheerful and invigorating presence.” By juxtaposing Reagan’s challenges as president with his jolly demeanor, Thatcher demonstrates that, in spite of leading the most powerful nation in the world, Reagan managed to keep his spirits high. The author’s juxtaposition highlights one of the president’s greatest traits, his optimism. However, Reagan’s positive attitude wasn’t his only admirable quality. Reagan’s sense of humor captivated everyone in his presence. His easy jokes, “gave reassurance to an anxious world.” The author’s use of powerful diction highlights Reagan’s sharp tongue. By describing Reagan’s jokes “in the midst of hysteria,” Thatcher paints Reagan as down-to-earth. He cracked one-liners and laughed like everyone else. As a result, the audience feels a connection with Reagan. Despite his role as president of the United States, “Ronnie” was just a normal …show more content…
While working alongside Reagan, Thatcher realized that he “knew his own mind.” When Reagan dealt with difficulties in the capital, “he was not baffled or disoriented or overwhelmed.” The author’s use of strong diction allows Thatcher to commend Reagan’s response to hardship. His drive was resolute and his spirit determined. Reagan handled all that politics threw at him. Thatcher then writes, “He knew almost instinctively what to do,” as an entire paragraph. The unique spacing leaves a lasting impression on the audience who can only reflect on Reagan’s natural savvy for politics. Within the next two paragraphs, Thatcher’s prose becomes casual despite the serious topics being she addresses. Reagan served as president during the height of the Cold War. He, “did not shrink from denouncing Moscow’s evil empire, but he realized that a man of good will might nonetheless emerge.” Thatcher juxtaposes common belief about the Soviet Union’s, “dark corridors,” and Reagan’s tactful approach. He recognized that the Soviet Union wasn’t completely devoid of hope. In noting this fact, Thatcher shows that Reagan always managed to see the good in
In her eulogy in honor of Ronald Reagan on June 11, 2004, Margaret Thatcher effectively supports her claim in her opening sentence that, “We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man, and I have lost a dear friend.” She contrasts many items in her speech, but a few of the most important instances are in lines 9 through 12, line 22, and lines 73 through 81. In paragraph 2, the paragraph after the opening sentence, Thatcher tells us about the goals Reagan set for himself, contrasting some of his international, more daunting ones with one that was simply part of his personality: “what Arnold Bennett called ‘the great act of cheering us all up.’ ” (line 12)
He set a peaceful resolution of the Cold War, as the Soviet Union was done he asserted winning the Cold War. He also declared that the whole world won. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, his staunch ally, wrote that Reagan had "achieved the most difficult of all political tasks: changing attitudes and perceptions about what is possible. He succeeded to enlarge freedom when it was very hard. Free-market ideology expanded and an increase in democratic nations were seen at Reagan’s reign.
In Margaret Thatcher's 2004 eulogy for Ronald Reagan, she uses many rhetorical strategies to convey her message that Ronald Reagan was a strong president who remained positive throughout the problems he faced with in office. The first rhetorical strategy Thatcher uses is the incorporation of loaded words with strong positive connotations. She uses words like “cheerful” (line 3), “invigorating” (4), “optimism” (13), and “grace” (22) to describe Reagan’s attitude and actions during his presidency. She also uses phrases like “lightness of spirit” (10) and “renewed faith” (31) to characterize and describe the positivity he approached everything with. Clearly, Ronald Reagan stayed positive, as Margaret Thatcher said he did.
On June 11, 2004, Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister of Great Britain, delivered a eulogy in honor of Ronald Reagan, the former United States President. Thatcher had worked closely with Reagan during his service as president, and appropriately presented this memorial speech to the American people so that they can remember him and all he has done for the success of the nation. Throughout the eulogy, Thatcher uses elevated diction, anaphora, and a serious tone to convey her message about what a strong president Reagan was. Thatcher's elevated diction emphasizes the success of Reagan during his presidency. In the second line in the eulogy, she describes Reagan as having an "invigorating presence.
Namely, Thatcher references the state of the nation’s economy following the presidency of Jimmy Carter as one of “only limits to growth” followed by Reagan, who successfully “transformed a stagnant economy into an engine of opportunity.” By contrasting the complacent nature of America prior to the Reagan administration with the newly progressive society established during the Reagan administration, Thatcher emphasizes the productive impacts Reagan had on the country. It establishes trust between the citizens and the belated president as the nation strives to preserve the legacy of the administration. Thatcher references the past in order to highlight the good Reagan did for the United States and the world, motivating people to choose to act in a similar manner that Reagan chose to run the nation by. The contrast persuades the audience to fight to continue the path that Reagan has set the nation on because Thatcher saw how beneficial the path was not only for America, but for the entire world as well, especially
People deal with the thought of death in different ways, certain people don’t often express their emotions because dealing with a person’s death isn’t easy to overcome. The former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher has presented a eulogy in honor of the former president Ronald Reagan. Within this eulogy, Thatcher emphasizes on Regan’s hard work to unite the country as it was before. The message that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is giving out to the American people follows upon former president Ronald Reagan's death. She explains the components and characteristics that Reagan portrayed throughout his presidency.
America had participated in its fair share of wars in the twentieth century. Germany as a whole had been in a political and economic drought ever since the last world war and Reagan was offering a hand of help through his speech when saying, “I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent – and I pledge to you my country’s efforts to help overcome these burdens.” Reagan had also held two summits with Secretary Gorbachev and wanted more. Reagan had been doing his part and clarified to the Secretary that his contribution and willingness to make changes was a necessity to future progression: “General Secretary Gorbachev if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate!” Tough love and bluntness often times are required to make actual change.
Reagan does not disappoint while speaking on our country's past, present, and future struggles. He compares religion to communism using a common link of sin and evil. Therefore, Ronald Reagan shocked and amused some while inspiring others in his audience as he spoke on the evils
Yui Kiyama Aldous, Richard. Reagan and Thatcher: The Difficult Relationship. W. W. Norton & Company, 2012. Random House, 201 Richard Aldous argues that political titans clashed repeatedly as they confronted the greatest threat of their time: the USSR. He obviously admires both leaders but merely wishes to point out, often through the use of recently declassified documents, that theirs was on occasion "a fractious alliance" rather than what Mr. Aldous calls "the merely love-struck political marriage of contemporary myth."
In this address he makes a sweeping critique of liberalism, big government, and federal payments. (Encyclopedia) In this speech, known as “A Time for Choosing” Reagan used logos, pathos, and mood to invoke people’s feelings about making the right choice when choosing their leader in order for society to have a stronger and successful future. Historical background
Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of Great Britain, portrays her sorrow in the death of Ronald Reagan, and emphasizes the former president’s accomplishments. Thatcher utilizes cause and effect to show how Reagan prospered under immense pressure of the public. Thatcher projects her admiration for Reagan by using glittering diction. Lastly, she adds shift change to show the changing tone in her eulogy. Margaret Thatcher appeals to not only Americans but others who are grieving the loss of Reagan through the use of informal tone and Thatcher creates a sense of relief and praise for the deceased.
His inclusion of analogies and emotional appeals, combined with his strong sense of authority, brings his arguments into focus and gives them a punch. His power in delivering this speech quite possibly kept America looking towards the stars and propelled them into the next age of space exploration. President Reagan’s speech serves as a touching conclusion to a tragic event. Despite the terrible catastrophe, Reagan’s four-minute speech provided closure on the one-minute tragedy whose impact will be felt for
Knowing President Reagan’s past is something that is not spoken and written of enough. In the Writing the Life of Ronald Reagan: An Impossible Mission? it helps to bring light to his past and why he was able to use these forms of rhetoric to speak to the harsh realities of the Berlin Wall and its impact on many people around the world. It is important to note that President Reagan “published two (ghostwritten) autobiographies. The first one was published in 1965, just before he entered politics in California; it is entitled Where’s the Rest of Me?”
Thatcher opens her eulogy by off by using pathos. Addressing how America lost a president and a man, it is making citizens feel sorrow. “We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man, and I have
Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time, gave a eulogy to the grieving American people in honor of the late Ronald Reagan on June 11th, 2004. In her speech, Thatcher used rhetorical techniques to show the strength and principles of Reagan and project those values onto the American people. To project the ideas of strength and firm ideals, Thatcher used repetition, elevated syntax and the tone of optimism and sincerity to convey her message. In the beginning of the speech, Thatcher used repetition to show what Reagan had accomplished in his lifetime.