Ronald Reagan Address Rhetorical Devices

January 28, 1986, is when the space shuttle Challenger took flight with seven astronauts aboard and America observing, while the shuttle exploded in air. All astronauts die from the tragedy with their loved ones watching. President Ronald Reagan is in the White House ready to fulfill duties as the President of the United States of America. In his role as president he changes his plans to address the tragedy of the Challenger shuttle and respond to America’s anguish. President Reagan speaks to his audience, the citizens of America, to bring assurance through his speech. President Reagan’s purpose in giving the speech is to respond to America in distress. He uses certain rhetorical devices to achieve his purpose in his speech delivery to America.

President Reagan says, “Today is a day for mourning and remembering…We mourn their loss as a nation together” (Reagan). He uses the word usages of “mourning”, “remembering”, and “loss.” These words all carry a sense of grief and empathy towards America as his audience. President Reagan uses this word choice to relate to his grieving nation and seem as though he can connect with everyone listening. President Reagan changes his attitude and wording into something more hopeful, saying, “It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave” (Reagan). After grieving with his audience with certain word choices he begins to start using words of hope. He uses the words “expanding”, “horizons”, “future”, and “brave.” President Reagan purposefully uses these words in his language to turn the sadness from his speech into something his audience can look to in the future. He assures America by saying the nation will grow from this experience and become stronger from everyone's braveness. By using the rhetorical device pathos, President Reagan is able to captivate his audience emotionally by relating to the distress America is going

President Reagan relates to the American reputation, saying, “We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is” (Reagan). President Reagan says the definition of freedom by saying that there is no restraint. He relates the tragic event to freedom, President Reagan explains to his audience that failure brings strength and America will recover from the incident. This helps his audience to blame NASA less for the accident and have empathy for the agency. President Reagan then compares the dedication of the astronauts to Sir Francis Drake’s death of dying within the ocean and he says, “He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it” (Reagan). President Reagan brings up this example of a great explorer who died on the mission of a great exploration. He relates this to the astronauts who died to help his audience understand that exploration is dangerous. By this President Reagan claims they have never lost an astronaut in flight but with great exploration comes great achievements for America. Through rhetorical devices of logos President Reagan responds to his audience with rational thinking that there is hope for the future and this national tragedy will be