The former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher, delivered a thoughtful eulogy to honor her close friend and former United States President, Ronald Reagan, to the American people on June 11, 2004. She honors Ronald Reagan’s legacy in her speech by attesting to his character as a leader, friend, and an American. Thatcher accomplishes this through parallelism, anaphora and juxtaposition. She also creates a fluctuating tone through her contrasting diction of playfulness and seriousness. Thatcher opens the eulogy with parallelism, “We have lost a great president, a great American, and a great man,” By using this form of repetition in the opening sentence Thatcher shares the many hats that Reagan wore throughout his lifetime. The hat of a leader, a man, and a “dear” friend. Thatcher’s use of this rhetorical
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“Others prophesied the decline of the West. He inspired America and its allies with renewed faith in their mission of freedom. Others saw only limits to growth. He transformed a stagnant economy into an engine of opportunity. Others hoped at best, for an uneasy cohabitation with the Soviet Union. He won the Cold War...”. The use of juxtaposition in this portion of the eulogy further develops Thatcher’s argument because it puts the success of Reagan's legacy up against the doubt that others had in him. By doing this, it clearly shows that the success outweighs the doubt. In addition, her use of anaphora in this section does not only create a change of pace, but also emphasizes the fact that the counter arguments were those of people who did not have faith in America or Ronald Reagan. Thatcher uses the term “others” as a way of showing that it was an insignificant amount of people who had no faith Reagan. Therefore, discrediting them along with their counter
“Others prophesied the decline of the West. He inspired America and its allies with renewed faith in their mission of freedom. Others saw only limits to growth. He transformed a stagnant economy into an engine of opportunity. Others hoped at best, for an uneasy cohabitation with the Soviet Union. He won the Cold War...”. The use of juxtaposition in this portion of the eulogy further develops Thatcher’s argument because it puts the success of Reagan's legacy up against the doubt that others had in him. By doing this, it clearly shows that the success outweighs the doubt. In addition, her use of anaphora in this section does not only create a change of pace, but also emphasizes the fact that the counter arguments were those of people who did not have faith in America or Ronald Reagan. Thatcher uses the term “others” as a way of showing that it was an insignificant amount of people who had no faith Reagan. Therefore, discrediting them along with their counter