Rhetorical Analysis Of Tear Down This Wall

“Tear Down This Wall” Started in the 1960s, the Cold War between the Democratic United States of America and the Communistic Soviet Union had become an ongoing issue around the world, and has implemented fear among the German Berliners. The Berlin Wall was built by Communists in August 1961 to retain Germans from departing East Berlin into West Berlin. The wall stood as a symbol of separation and the Cold War between the two countries. On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan, who was known as the “Great Communicator”, came to West Berlin to assure hope to the people of Berlin, both the west and the east. In the well-known speech, “Tear down This Wall”, President Ronald Reagan utilizes ethos, emotional appeal, anaphora, and rhetorical questions to persuade the West Berliners to never give up hope, and entice the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. …show more content…
He starts off by mentioning that “we American presidents...it’s our duty to speak, in this place, of freedom” (Reagan 1). He is telling them that he has credibility on matter of freedom because he believe that it is the duty of the American to speak of. He tried to persuade Berliners that Americans are here to free them from their despair, not to separate them from their loved ones like what Mikhail Gorbachev did by constructing the Berlin Wall. He then continues to show his credibility by first presenting Paul Lincke, a German composer and the "father" of the Berlin operetta, and then stating that anywhere he goes and whatever he does, he “still have a suitcase in Berlin” (Reagan 1). Reagan mentioned Paul Lincke to connect himself with the German Berliners. He is proving to the Berliners he is here for them and he is here to dismantle the Berlin