“Tear Down This Wall!” In 1987, when Ronald Reagan arrived in Berlin, he arrived in a city and country divided. The Berlin Wall took center stage, dividing Berlin into two separate entities. West Berlin was run by the Allies, and East Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. The political ideologies of these two also clashed, with East Germany practicing communism and West Germany being more democratic. Reagan, the President of the United States at that time, quickly realized that the situation involving the two countries was doing nothing but harm to both sides. In his “Speech at the Brandenburg Gate”, Reagan presents his theme that Germany would be unified and strong without the Berlin Wall, through use of metaphor and repetition. Reagan …show more content…
He states, “I noticed words crudely spray-painted on the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner: ‘This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.’ Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom” (Reagan n.pg.). The phrase “cannot withstand” is another way of saying that the wall is weak. Reagan repeats the phrase to emphasize how strong the people were. It took strength to live under the communist regime. Any soul caught trying to cross the wall was brutally shot, so many people wanted to be relieved of the oppressive government that they were attempting to escape it. Also, in the most famous part of the speech, Reagan uses repetition when he states, “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (n.pg.). Reagan’s repeating requests of Mr. Gorbachev are proof that unity could be achieved. Gorbachev was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union at the time. For a leader of such great power, it is a relatively simple task to tear down a wall, and if General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev does it, businesses and people can reestablish relationships,