In “Tear Down this Wall” Ronald Reagan’s
effective use of rhetoric proves that democracy and freedom lead to prosperity
and economic growth, while communism and totalitarian governments lead to
failure and poor health among other things.
Ronald Reagan starts by establishing his
credibility on Freedom. Ronald Reagan is President of the United States of
America, a title that is synonymous with leader of the free world. President Reagan
then goes on to address the Berlin wall and how it not only divides East and
West Berlin, but how it divides all of Europe. He then uses pathos to bring his
audience from a place of despair by saying, “I find in Berlin a message of
hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.” By saying this he
evokes hope and allows the audience to trust in him and his ability to fix this
broken city. Ronald Reagan knows he will be able to reunite both sides of the
city through democracy and freedom.
Next, President Reagan provides evidence for
these claims using logos. The Marshall plan has built strong and free nations
out of ruin all throughout the world. After the war it reconstructed Japan from
the ground up and turned it into a world economic power through freedom and
democracy. The Marshall plan also rebuilt West Germany and West Berlin. Through
freedom, West Berlin became the greatest industrial city in Germany. This
information is also pathos because it evokes hope in the people of East Berlin
and Germany they believe that there is hope for them to be freed from
the communist government. Ronald Reagan then goes on to compare the
two post-war worlds, in which the West, which was influenced by the Marshall
plan, flourished and prospered through freedom and democracy,
but in Eastern communist-controlled countries, there was
failure, technological backwardness and an overall lower quality of
life. He believes that the only way to achieve prosperity and success for
Eastern countries is to tear down the berlin wall.
President Reagan continues to use pathos through
his repetition of the word hope throughout his speech. He hopes to
instill the hope that Berlin may be reunited and that freedom will reign
throughout Germany and throughout Europe. Ronald Reagan then addresses
those who protested him being in the city by saying, "I wonder if they
have ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they
apparently seek, no one would be able to do what they're
doing again." This shows logos by presenting the audience with a visual
of how life is like in the East. It also appeals to the fear that the audience
because they are just outside the wall and therefore are the soviets easiest
targets.
No comments:
Post a Comment