A Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Eulogy Of Ronald Reagan

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The passing of who was once Ronald Reagan was one that affected not only the United States, but also the world. It was a loss we all felt, but it was felt more by those close to him. Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain was one who's Reagan's death affected at a more personal level. During her eulogy she's described him as a great president, American and friend with the usage of rhetorical strategies such as anaphora, repetition, comparison, parallelism, her usage of pathos and ethos and the strong personalizing, to describe him and pay her respect to him. Ronald Reagan, while many things, one of his biggest accomplishments is his long presidency. Thatcher in her eulogy used repetition, comparison and emphasis on his …show more content…

During her eulogy, she discusses his effort against Russia throughout his presidency, and the victory against them is one of Reagan's greatest accomplishments. She creates a picture of a comparison between Reagan, who is presented as the hero and Russia as the villain. It is clear that Thatcher sees Reagan as a great leader of our country, she paints him as a powerful leader who defeated a threat towards us and showed great skills to be able to rule and lead our country. Thatcher repeatedly mentions Russia throughout her eulogy, when talking about them, she uses words such as "enemies" "evil empire" "weaknesses" "failures" and "communism" a drastic contrast from the words she used for him such as " freshness" "a man of good" "sincere." The contrast alludes to the idea that Reagan was the good guy, who defeated the evils of Russia, a proud success of his presidency. This is a comparison she regularly uses throughout her eulogy. Thatcher alludes to the idea of Reagan being a great president in lines 30-39. Thatcher uses anaprophy by repeating the word "Others.." for example "Others prophesied..." "Others saw..." and "Others hoped..." This helped emphasizes all the work he did, work

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