Ronald Reagan's Rhetorical Analysis: The Time Of Our Choosing

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s State of the Union Address in the year 1942 opened with a powerful start. He remained good in posture, strong verbal skills, gestures and strong eye contact with his audience which goes to show confidence and being in control of your speech (Stephen D. Boyd, 2017). He addressed the Americans, the citizens of the United States before he mentioned anything. He went to show that the President, himself found faith in their spirits and how he was merely proud of his citizens. He presented a powerful statement to his audience by acknowledging them and according to Matt Eventoff, “a statement or phrase can catch the audience’s attention by keeping them guessing as to what you’re about to say next.

Reagan used pronouns to include the audience throughout his speech. One example of Reagan’s speech being inclusive of the entire nation was when he said, “ We’ve grown used to the wonders in this century” (4). He is saying that as a whole country we are used to finding new wonders everyday. Reagan was very confident in NASA and wanted to continue to receive support, so he said, “We’ll continue our quest into space” (6). He believed that America could keep the space program going strong despite the recent tragic events.

Vargas 5 Ronald Reagan: America’s Leading Man Ronald Reagan, only movie actor to become president, was recognized for his conservative republicanism, fervent anticommunism, policies contributing to demise of the Soviet Union, appealing personal style, skilled as an orator which earned him the title “Great Communicator.” (Britannica) However, Reagan didn’t get this recognition easily, he worked really hard to get to there. Reagan got his start in politics in a televised 1964 address.

In his emotionally inspiring speech, “Shuttle Challenger Address,” Ronald Reagan expresses his deepest condolences to the people most affected by the Challenger accident. He advances his speech with a gentle yet strong willed facade in order to inspire the future generations of astronauts to not let this tragedy affect their future endeavors. Raegen then briefly puts his presidential status aside in order to further express the depth of his pain, not only at a presidential level, but as an American citizen concerned for the well being of his country. Raegen applies different types of rhetorical devices in order to emotionally appeal to the people most affected by the accident, while at the same time encourage the general public to not let this

The first rhetorical skill that Reagan uses is ethos. In the very first sentence he implies his status and authority by stating, “I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans.” By showing us his power as President of the United States (the

Being personal is a good way to unify people. In this speech President Regan uses a rhetorical canon; which is style, effectively. President Reagan personalizes his speech by talking directly to the families of the fallen heroes. Personalizing the speech was a good choice because it is a more effective way of talking about the situation rather than just talking about the incident an informing what happened. Also his choice of using the words “us” and “we” triggers unity among the nation.

Reagan sets America on a higher level than any other country when he says, “Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on earth.” He then goes on to add, “We will again be the exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who do not now have freedom.” These hopeful words such as freedom and dignity set America apart from the rest of the world. Ronald Reagan is tactfully creating a sense of nationalism and unification in his audience, giving them a sense of pride. People want to preserve and remake America in this way, because believing that we have more freedom and more opportunities than others, makes us

In Reagan’s eulogy Thatcher uses pathos to unite herself with the audience, through the mutual feelings of grief and sorrow over losing a friend. In the opening lines of the eulogy Thatcher creates pathos by using diction. In lines one and two Thatcher said that a “Great President… Great American… Great man….” has died. Her choice of using the word great instead of good or any other adjective, effects the audience by showing what kind of man Reagan was. Since death is a universally known topic, it is safe to say that everybody has experienced the pain of losing a great person to death.

Reagan states, "Not until I went into the churches of America and hurt her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America. America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great" (1983). Ronald Reagan and the writers of the speech adapted and analyzed the audience because the audience consisted of Christians and the speech included many references to the Bible and to God. Reagan supports the Christians and keeping America good through godly works and prayers (1983).

Then former prime minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher, recited a eulogy in 2004 in remembrance of former President of the United States Ronald Reagan on how both world leaders were so close. Thatcher’s purpose to speak about President Ronald Reagan was to show how great of a leader Reagan was during the political upheaval during the Cold War. She adopts a heartwarming tone in order to show the citizens of the United States the level of leadership and heroism he incorporated when trying to prevent two countries from the destroying the Earth and humanity itself. Thatcher begins the eulogy towards President Reagan by mentioning that not just the citizens of the United States has lost a great president but that the whole democratic world has lost a great and influential man. She uses many

As a president of America, the credibility of Lyndon Baines Johnson is well-established. He did not have to establish his credibility as everyone already knows it and he is a trustworthy source. But, as his audiences are young adults, so he still try to boost his credibility at the beginning of the speech with the joke about coeducation college student partying to let the students know he has been there too. 2.3.2 Pathos This speech can be said as an emotional roller coaster as the emotional elements have its ups and downs.

Rhetorical Devices Open Ended Response In Ronald Reagan`s speech, ethos and logos are two rhetorical devices using either exquisite knowledge and integrity or logicality to persuade his audience of knocking the Wall of Berlin down. Throughout Reagan`s speech, ethos is a rhetorical device in which he uses to demonstrate and express his knowledge, and show integrity to those listening. Subsequently, this technique is what convinces the author of the continuous idea of knocking down the Wall of Berlin; overall, knocking down the wall would no longer separate Europe, and would spread the freedom between East and West Berlin. Ronald states, “President von Weizsacker has said, ‘The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed,’

On December 8th, 1941 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered a speech to the House of Representatives, Members of the Senate, the House Speaker, to the Vice President, and to the American people. Franklin spoke of the incident of the attack on Pearl Harbor the day after it occurred. Mr. Roosevelt was stern and concise. He spoke on the occasion of tragedy to inform the House and the American people what the Japanese have done.

There’s only an up or down: man’s old --old aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.” This shows his ethics and the passion he has when he presents his speech. Reagan stated,”Today, 37 cents out of every dollar earned in the country is the tax collector’s share,” He also included,”We’ve raised our debt limit three times in the last twelve months, and now our national debt is one and a half times bigger than all the combined debts of all the nations of the world.” Reagan shows us that he knows about the numbers and logistics of our nation which is logos. Since he knows specific numbers, more people will listen to what he is trying to

President Eisenhower, in his address to the country, more specifically the people of Arkansas, discusses the inevitable situation involving racial segregation occurring in Arkansas. Eisenhower’s purpose is to convey to the country that he will fight to preserve the decision that the Supreme Court came to on racial segregation. He adopts a personal tone in order to convey to the people of Arkansas that he understands how they feel in this situation. After establishing that he will do whatever is necessary to protect the rights of the students and connects with the Arkansas people by addressing the fact that his decision wasn’t based on his personal beliefs, Eisenhower shifts his focus to validating the citizen’s feelings of anger and feeling slighted. Eisenhower through logically crafted arguments asserts that he will use his powers to ensure the students’ rights aren’t withheld.