Essay Questions

Show how Edmund Morris humanizes Ronald Reagan as a public figure in the memoir Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan.

The writer uses a rather varied way of portraying the character, Ronald Reagan. In the memoir, Morris invites readers to visualize the life of Reagan through the lens of his childhood friendships. This unique approach that the writer employs in the memoir achieves the humanization of the main character, Ronald Reagan. In focusing on this aspect of Reagan’s life (friendships), the writer reminds readers to perceive him like any other person irrespective of how famous they are.

Competition and success are aspects that are brought out explicitly in Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan. Show how the writer achieves this in the work.

As brought out in the memoir, the life of Reagan revolves around competition as well as success. As vaguely highlighted by the memoir’s allusion to Reagan’s football nickname, Dutch, the competitive nature is part of aspects that the writer finds compelling about Ronald Reagan as a person. Even though he achieves success in politics, Reagan does not focus on this success for his entire life. He sets out and explores any arenas that he deems exciting and competes and wins.

Explore the metaphor of the shining city as brought out in this memoir.

The phrase, “shining city on a hill” is quite closely related with Ronald Reagan. While a metaphor, the imagery of the same is tied to Winthrop and his ideologies about the new Jerusalem together with the people who escape from England following religious maltreatment. The ‘shining city on a hill’ is thus is a metaphor for hope.