Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Speech

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On June 11, 2004, the former prime minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher delivered a eulogy in honor of former president Ronald Reagan, she declares Reagan as a great man and president. Thatcher develops her ideas by analyzing all he has done using parallelism, repetition, and ethos. Using Reagan’s accomplishments and personal experiences, she amplifies how great of a man he was in order to make the nation comprehend what Reagan did. Thatcher opens her eulogy with “We have lost a great president,” indicating that the speech she gives with apologetic and heartfelt tone is not only to the American people, but to everyone else. The first rhetorical device she uses is parallelism when noting Reagan’s accomplishments. In the first paragraph, Such as the nickname “Ronnie,” also when she says “ I worked closely with Ronald Reagan for eight of the most important years of our lives.” It indicates how long they have known each and how true her statements were. By doing this, she shows just how close she was with Reagan. Thatcher must have been really close to Reagan to be able to have a nickname for him. This shows the audience a personal side of the eulogy, which indicates that there was more to Reagan’s character. Her audience hears a new side of Reagan, this is something that they have never experienced. The American people see how much of a great person he was outside of the presidency. Using ethos shows how accurate the information she uses is, because she must have had a really close, and intimate relationship with Reagan for her to call him Ronnie. Thatcher needs to establish ethos in her speech because she wants the American people to believe what she says about the former president on how great of a man he was outside of the presidency. In the 2004 eulogy in honor of the late president, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher uses a series of rhetorical devices such as parallelism, repetition, and ethos to convey the message in which Reagan was much more than an excellent president. Thatcher’s use of rhetorical devices supports her eulogy because the concept of Reagan being more

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