Nancy Reagan Thesis

It does not matter if you are the President of the United States or if you are living off of few crumbs, everyone has battles to face. Some problems are publicized, others are internally present. Life is not perfect. Nor is it meant to be. Some people are facing different problems such as mental illness, physical defects, domestic violence, death of loved one, and even more. Focus on being grateful even in the most atrocious circumstances; this is the message Nancy Reagan wanted to tell to the constituents of America. Nancy Reagan, being a Republican, expressed her devoting to religion in the most difficult times. Some people go out of their way to make another life miserable. For this, I’m assuming that she abides by this quote: “God doesn’t

give you the people you want. He give you the people you need. To help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you, so that you can become the person you were meant to be” (Anonymous). Life is the filled with many issues and difficult/painful circumstances, but that does not mean you surrender your happiness and comfort because you do not know how to handle a situation. In Nancy Reagan’s book by the name of “My Turn”, the reading depicts to the readers how life is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted. The message that she wants to stress to the audience is to be always grateful even in hopeless situations. A lot of people only count their blessings when something good happens to them, and when something bad happens to them, they say “why me?” or “what did I do to deserve this?” But what society needs to learn is that even the terrible things are blessings, because when something bad happens to us we get the opportunity to grow spiritually, mentally or emotionally, consequently resulting into a better person. Due to the events that have happened in Nancy Reagan's life she would probably say the cure for Depression is that no matter how demoralizing a circumstance is, focus on the positive and let the negative aspects bypass. Having an optimistic personality will make life easier, as the person who possess the characteristic of being pessimistic is allowing their life, happiness, and enjoyment to deteriorate with time. And when these things disintegrate, this is how people get suicidal thoughts. They feel like life is planned against them and they will never succeed. People think they have hit “rock bottom” of Depression and life has become impossible. But what they need to realize is that the word impossible, says “I’m possible.”

Nancy Reagan describes her time in the white house as “highs were higher than...

expected, and the lows were much lower. While I loved being the first lady, my eight years with that title were the most difficult years of my life. Both of my parents died while Ronnie was president, and my husband and I were both operated for cancer. Before we had even settled in, Ronnie was shot and almost killed. Then there was the pressure of living under the intense scrutiny of the media, and the frustration of frequently being misunderstood. Everything I did or said seemed to generate controversy” (1-2). Nancy Reagan formatted the book so that book would start off with the terrible this that happened while she was in the White House. She probably did it gain sympathy within a few pages so that the reader would be interested in learning more. All the events she said were accurate and factual information, so she uses it to tell the readers that “look at what happend to me, but I still preserved and continued with my life.” Starting the book in this manner, enables the reader to see the no matter how high, big, or famous someone gets, they will always have problems and just because they do not tell you about it or keep it a secret does not mean that they live perfect lives. Nancy Reagan said that the reason why the shooting occured in the first place is because of movies which “make a powerful impact impression on people’s minds -especially the minds of people who may be unbalanced. I think

there is too much violence in films and televisions and it’s one of the reasons for our terrible problems with crime. It used be that when character was shot on screen. The cameras didn’t zero in and show you the blood pouring out of his wounds. People today are too accustomed to seeing violence” (382) . Knowing that her spouse was in the film industry before and she is making a remark on the way filmmakers produced there content, I believe is quite significant. It depicts an underlying message, -she probably didn’t approve of some of the movies that Ronald Reagan was in. “The Killers” and “Santa Fe Trail” both were movies that depicted violence, and Ronald Reagan was in both of them. On another note, the way she conveyed these messages makes her seem well educated due to her careful choice of words. She said “movies make a powerful impact impression on people’s minds -especially the minds of people who may be unbalanced.” Notice how she said the word “unbalanced” to describe the mindset of these people, not “mental”. Unbalanced has different meanings and is open to interpretation. Unbalanced could mean a person who has is not emotionally stable because maybe their loved one died, or a person that is suicidal. But that doesn’t make you mental insane, so the choice of words is crucial. “Unbalanced” is a broad category while “mental” is refined to fit a specific group. This supports the theme because her point is that any sort of complications happens to everyone and mental people aren’t the only one with problems. Everyone has problems.

Because this book is an autobiography and written in the first person, I believe that bias was shown in the terms of her outlook on media .The fact that earlier on she was taking jabs after movies and the film industry along with the actors that are in there, to say that they have an influential impact on society due to the fact that they are celebrities, therefore they need to be cautious about what they portray in movies.

People think that making a movie “Rated R” will solve the problem, but the human brain does not fully develop at the age of 18. So when a mind that is still immature is watching violent scenes it going to have a significant impact on them. I feel like she is trying to send a message that there should be a law that Rated R movies should be for even older audiences. Throughout the book I feel like she gave subtle hints that some of the laws in place need to be altered. Not only for what should be considered as the suitable audience to watch certain types of movies, but also media coverage and its relations with privacy rights. Due to the way she talks about the media, I personally feel that she did not have a bad outlook on the way media presented information until she became the first lady, because she described it as one of the struggles she faced as she was under constant supervision by them. She felt that her civil rights and civil liberties were violated in the terms of privacy rights and never could take a “breather” from the cameras. She felt

confined because if she said to the reporters not to videotape her, then the media would say that Nancy is up to something and portray a bad interpretation of her to the constituents. This raises the questions that are we truly following the Constitution in terms of protecting basic civil rights and liberties if our own first lady feels that her right to privacy is infringed?

This book is extremely engaging and hooks the reader, I would recommend this as it portrays an insight of the white in a different perspective that society usually does not hear about. The biggest strength I feel is the fact that words have a much more deeper meaning and they enable the reader to see the even the first lady says that she laws in place need to be refined. The President and the First Lady are suppose to satisfy the needs/wants many constituents as possible so that they get a majority approval rating. So one weakness that I found in this book is that I felt like it was targeted for a certain audience and was not meant to be a book that everyone would necessarily be happy to accept. Due to the fact that they are Republicans there focus is on religion is to an extent that it might upset some Atheists.

Nancy Reagan and her ability to cope herself in drastic situations has inspired me to be more grateful in all types of situations. I was never aware of how annoying it could be having a camera following you everywhere you go, in turn violating your right to privacy. I think that this issue should go to the Supreme Court because even presidents and first ladies do not have their civil rights and liberties fully protected. I feel like this indirect yet powerful message is make the constituents realizes that there are problems with the principles of Constitution.