More handpicked essays just for you.
Rhetorical analysis of Reagan's speech
Ronald Reagan inaugural speech analysis
Ronald Reagan speech analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Rhetorical analysis of Reagan's speech
Ronald Reagan was the 40th president of the United States of America during the Cold War era. On January 28th, 1986, he gave a speech to discuss the tragedy of the Challenger Space Shuttle, which exploded in atmosphere. The speech was delivered in the Oval Office during his State of the Union Address. He was attempting to inform and comfort America about the disaster. The author uses multiple rhetorical devices in his speech. The importance of these devices is to convey a goal of the author to persuade the reader to a certain perspective. A speaker uses these devices to give the speech more impact. Rhetorical and persuasive devices can make a speech more effective since the devices can use emotional and logical appeal. In this speech, Reagan does not use very many complicated devices, but he does use appeal, anaphora, repetition, and allusion. Ronald Reagan was born to parents Nelle and John Reagan in February 1911. He went to Eureka College where he studied economics and sociology. Before Reagan began his political career, he was a Hollywood actor. Starring in over 50 movies, his n...
Ronald Reagan was born February 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois. His father was John Edward “Jack” Reagan, and his mother was Nelle Wilson Reagan. He was born into a happy, well-disciplined family, and had a very happy childhood. Before Reagan held office, Reagan was a radio announcer, and became the voice of Major League Baseball in 1932. Reagan also had a 7-year contract with Warner Brothers, and made about fifty movies. Reagan then put all the fun and games aside, and joined the Army Reserve and was called to active duty shortly after Pearl Harbor. “ He was in the Army from 1942-45 rising to the level of Captain. However, he never took part in combat and stated stateside. He narrated training films and was in the Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit.” (Martin Kelly, n...
Politicians frequently receive negative publicity at the hand of their own use of language. Their uses of words as they relate to persuasion typically fall within one of the three dimensions of language functions, semantic or thematic. Often their persuasive language can be found to closely resemble any of these three categories simultaneously. There are many tools for analyzing persuasive symbols, many of which should be utilized when analyzing great communicators such as President Ronald Reagan. In response to the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion on January 28th, 1986 where seven brave American’s gave their lives. President Ronald Reagan made history with his famous speech, which didn’t only serve to address the great tragedy, but served as a focal point of comfort for the grieving nation. He commemorated the seven heroes who had fallen that morning in route to outer space; he expressed gratitude to NASA for their past developments and encouraged further explorations. Ronald Reagan was a great communicator, a charismatic persuader whose words delivered focus of the message through utilization of persuasive symbols. This paper aims not to be an all-inclusive guide for analyzing persuasive symbols, but will sufficiently guide the reader to be a more perceptive of persuasive language.
President Reagan, at the time in the beginnings of his second term, had successfully maintained overall a high approval rating with the American people. He had won their trust and respect by being quite relatable to the average citizen (Cannon). He had planned that evening to give his State of the Union address, but instead postponed it. The tragedy that had unfolded just hours earlier demanded his complete attention (Eidenmuller 29).
Ronald Reagan was one of the most liked Presidents. When being elected for his second term, he won by a landslide—winning all the states minus Minnesota and Washington D.C. Reagan addresses the people of the United States of America. He wants the American people to reflect on his presidency, and as all presidents do in their farewell addresses, he wants to say goodbye to the nation that he's led for the past eight years. Ronald Reagan uses repetition, parallel structure, and allusion to reflect on his presidency and to say farewell to the American people.
In his “Challenger Explosion” speech, Pres. Ronald Reagan comforts the nation in the aftermath of NASA’s Challenger Space Shuttle exploded shortly after takeoff killing all seven astronauts. In this speech, he used rhetorical devices, such as alliteration, allusion, anaphora, and euphemism to relay his feelings of sadness and grief.
On March 15, 1965 in Washington D.C ……..the courageous President Lyndon B. Johnson has delivered a legendary speech. It was called, “We shall overcome.” The speech came into conjunction, after the sad death of a black protester in Selma, Alabama. The protest was over black voting rights. Blacks were simply discriminated against voting rights on the basis of their skin color. Johnson’s aspiration for the “we shall overcome” speech, was to convince the congress, Americans, to pass his bill. This would be beneficial by enabling blacks to vote. Johnson is widely known for his effective use of ethos, logos, and pathos to engage the crowd.
The different components of rhetoric were used by Franklin Roosevelt in order to further his endeavors as president. He used ethos to gain the trust of Americans, pathos to appeal to their emotions, and logos to attract the logical ...
Ronald Reagan grew up with an alcoholic father, Jack Reagan (“Life Before the”). After his death, Ronald’s mother, Nelle, nurtured and encouraged him and his brother, Neil (“Life Before the”). Nelle taught her sons that alcoholism is a disease and she did not want her boys to blame their father for the bad habit (“Life Before the”). Growing up with an alcoholic father made Ronald take a different path and become the well rounded man that he was. In his high school years, Reagan excelled on both the football and basketball teams. Reagan even acted in plays, and he was also a writer for the school newspaper (“Life Before the”). Reagan was also an excellent swimmer, he worked as a lifeguard and according to newspaper reports, he rescued 77 people from drowning (“Life Before the”). He had lots of integrity and he had the commitment to do what is right regardless of the impact. Reagan was even the student body president which shows his early leadership qualities.
Nationwide, it is known that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the one to serve the longest time that any President has ever done so before and he was great at what he accomplished. Roosevelt was like a “grandparent” to the American people with the way that he would speak to them, acknowledge them, and explain what was going on in the world to them (Franklin, American). Each time that Franklin was elected, he had to give the nation an inaugural speech, each president does. However, his second, third, and fourth speeches all related to the topic of what he was going to change in his upcoming presidency compared to the courses of action he had taken in previous events. Within his Second Inaugural Speech, Franklin D. Roosevelt describes to the American
...imes when we are faced with national tragedies we are left at a loss for words. We look upon our leaders to help us through these difficult times, to have all the answers. We listen to what they have to say with vulnerability and uncertainty of what’s to come next for our country. Reagan was aware of all these factors when he gave his famous address. He was aware that in order for any argument to be considered a powerful and successful one it needs to be thought through and take into consideration the outside factors that are affecting it. Reagan’s challenger argument was one that had a clear audience, distinct setting, and finally the argument had a definite and in this case necessary purpose. By Reagan utilizing these three elements and effectively combining them he created a memorable speech that is now widely considered a masterpiece of public communication.
Since the presidency of George Washington, the people of The United States have turned to the commander in chief in times of distress to receive assurance and hope. Kurt Ritter comments on President Reagan’s address to the nation given on January 28, 1986 saying, “Perhaps no president could have fulfilled the country’s need to mourn and, then, to begin to heal as skillfully as Ronald Reagan (Ritter, 3).” On that morning the space shuttle “Challenger” violently exploded while the nation watched live televised coverage of the shuttle’s launch. President Reagan was scheduled to give his State of the Union Address on that date, but instead he reached out the country in this time of mourning. He spoke from his oval office to heartbroken teachers, children, NASA Space Engineers, and the entire country. President Reagan’s reaction to the tragedy of the challenger guided the United States out of despair and into a new light of hope behind seven fallen heroes. In this essay I will show that Reagan gave our country a new light of hope through his emphasis on Pathos but also incorporating Ethos and Logos in this memorable presentation.
Bill Clinton’s main purpose was to appeal to his audience in a way that would make them think the way he thinks. Using the techniques he used the speech was successful and really caught people’s attention. His speech was mainly used to fill people in about the way our society is even after so many events that have ended tragically. What Clinton did was appeal to his audience emotionally, appeal to their character, appeal to their logic and finally he used humor and reason to give his speech an interesting vibe.
Lyndon B. Johnson’s Voting Rights Act Address “Superior ability is not exclusive possession of any one race or any one class provided that men are given the right opportunities,” Henry A. Wallace. President, Lyndon B. Johnson, in his speech asserts that all American citizens are created equal and deserve the right to vote. He supports this claim by first using parallelism and alliteration, then loaded diction and allusion, then quotes, and finally ties it all together by using ethos and pathos. Johnson’s purpose is to get the audience to understand that all men and women are created equal in order to get all American citizens to vote. Johnson begins his assertive speech by stating that all American citizens have a problem with accepting equality for all men and women of every race and ethnicity.
President James “Jimmy” Carter’s inauguration speech is full of contrasts. He speaks of the United States being a “purely idealistic nation,” but he also recognizes the need for strength. He states we “cannot dwell upon remembered glory,” while at the same time saying he has “no new dream to set forth today, but rather urge a fresh faith in the old dream.” President Carter came to the presidency during a period of healing for the nation. He would lead a nation in transition, but struggle to give strong leadership.
Ronald Reagan grew up in a small town called Tampico on the upper east side of Illinois to Edward ‘’jack’’ Reagan (1883-1941) and Nelle Wilson Reagan(1883-1962). He became a