Margaret Thatcher's Eulogy On The Late President Ronald Reagan

Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, delivered a eulogy on June 11, 2004, in honor of the late President Ronald Reagan that asserts his huge impact on America and on the world. Thatcher develops her speech by talking about the former president’s unwavering optimism and outstanding achievements. She reiterates the influential accomplishments of Reagan in a positive, upbeat tone that is directed toward the American people. Thatcher uses ethos, repetition, and precise diction in order to effectively highlight how impactful Reagan was during his presidency. Margaret Thatcher uses ethos to establish her validity as the speaker, which assists her in conveying to the audience that Reagan was an influential president. As a

Thatcher calls Reagan “cheerful and invigorating,” “fresh and optimistic,” (3-13). She uses this descriptive language to highlight ideal qualities in a leader that were present in Reagan. These characteristics are important because a leader is supposed to inspire and motivate his or her people. Reagan does just this with his positive personality and optimism. Thatcher could have described the former president as good-natured or effervescent, but she does not use those words because they do not have the same effect as “cheerful” does. Good-natured is too tame to evoke the reaction Thatcher wants. Since she is giving a spoken eulogy, her words have to be simple enough to be comprehended by the audience. This is why Thatcher does not choose a word like effervescent; the word is too complex for some people. She has to use simpler language that everyone understands because it helps her to achieve her purpose of persuading the audience to believe that Reagan had an incredibly impactful presidency. “Cheerful” is the perfect word as it creates an image in the audience’s mind that depicts a leader that is joyful and ready to lead. Thatcher uses “invigorating” to show that Reagan was able and full of energy, while “fresh” indicates that he was new and different compared to previous presidents. “Optimism” is a prime quality in a leader, which is why Thatcher includes that in her description of Reagan. Thatcher meticulously chose her diction in order to highlight Reagan’s characteristics so that she could relate them to his successes as