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Ronald Reagan's Speech: Addressing The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

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Analyzing Challenger’s Address Delivered on January 28, 1986, Ronald Reagan’s speech addressing the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster was a plausible proof of the possibility to communicate various ideas during a tough situation effectively and efficiently. In a speech that lasted less than five minutes, Ronald Reagan managed to express his thoughts verbally and attempt to persuade his audience through a eulogy, a speech characterized by its epideictic occasion, which had been infused with a deliberative content that did not conflict with the core of the speech. Before one can analyze the details of Ronald Reagan’s speech, understanding the purpose behind the creation of the speech might be useful for understanding the context of the speech as a whole. Based on the speech how it relates to common speech …show more content…

(Dennis 714) By giving the members of the space shuttle crew recognition as “pioneers”, the speech had a smooth transition from its nature as sincere eulogy into a rhetorical work with a deliberative occasion. As soon as audience received a message implying that Challenger was a beginning instead of an end and how discovery has its risk, Ronald Reagan was in a good position to elaborate his objectives on the space program. Considering its effectiveness, the transition between the bad news and the new hope is one of the greatest features of the speech. This transition is crucial to connect two parts of the speech that are equally important. Imagine if Ronald Reagan only talked about the heartache prior to expressing his support to NASA, people might question his sincerity and become suspicious about his real intention. Here is a brief false speech of Ronald Reagan to show how lack of transition can destroy both purposes and both occasions associated with the

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On January 28, 1986, President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech to the nation following the Challenger disaster, in which the space shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after lift-off, killing all seven crew members on board. The speech, which was televised live, was watched by millions of people around the world and is remembered as one of Reagan's most memorable and poignant moments as president. Reagen utilizes rhetorical choices, such as personal anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and repetition to make the audience feel One of the most striking rhetorical choices that Reagan made during the Challenger speech was his use of personal anecdotes and stories. Reagan began the speech by recalling his own experience as a young boy watching

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For instance G.W. Busch during 9-11 and Abraham Lincoln with the Gettysburg Address. These two occasions might be different in many ways but they share a person rising to an opportunity to provide inspirational words for the people. Specifically, we can look at Ronald Reagan and how he rises to an occasion and unifies people while providing direction in a speech about the tragic “Challenger” event. My paper will use the Neo-Aristotelian criticism method, which explores the rhetorical situation and cannons of rhetoric.

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Ronald Reagan’s speech to the American people after the Challenger disaster was a message of unity, to come together as a nation and support each other. The address showed the American people that we can overcome tragedies and take them in stride as long as we are a unified nation of individuals. Reagan used many rhetorical strategies like purpose, historical allusion, and tone to highlight how America could come out of this tragedy unified and resolved to do better. The purpose of the speech is clear, it is a speech to promote solidarity among the American people in a time that could divide or heal, and to give hope for the future of the country and its people. Reagan fleshes out the topic thoroughly while constantly returning back to stating his purpose.

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On January 28th, 1986, Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States at the time, in his speech, entitled “Challenger Disaster,” addressed the Challenger Disaster. He supported this claim by first mourning over the tragedy, then he promoted NASA, also he tried to make sense of this calamity, and finally he informed the audience that the seven astronauts will never be forgotten and as a country we will be forever thankful for their service. Through Reagan’s use of tone, rhetorical analysis, and rhetorical tools he effectively persuaded America to mourn and appreciate the lives of the seven astronauts loss and to convince American people to continue their support for NASA and move forward as a country. Reagan unified America with his supportive

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This transition is crucial to connect two parts of the speech that are equally important. Imagine if Ronald Reagan only talked about the heartache prior to expressing his support to NASA, people might question his sincerity and become suspicious about his real intention. Here is a brief false speech of Ronald Reagan to show how lack of transition can destroy both purposes and both occasions associated with the

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The story, "Address to the Nation on the Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger." starts off as bad news to the United States presented by president Ronald Reagan. He uses compare and contrast and cause and effect in his announcement. He informs the people of the US about the explosion on the rocket in which killing 7 people. He then stated, "But they, the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly.” which tells the reader about how the people who volunteered to take the risk of their lives for their nation.

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The thirty seventh president’s tone throughout the speech was genuine and anguished. He stated frequently his regret towards his resignation; when this passage is read aloud, it is stressed heavily on pathos and that Nixon defended his decision with the selflessness of his own emotions and did what is better for the country (“American”). In his speech, Richard Nixon establishes his credibility and then goes on to show the logic of why he is resigning along with sparking the reader’s emotions in defense of him through the use of frequent fallacies and rhetorical devices. Nixon goes on to speak of his accomplishments and the tasks he hopes the American people will achieve with a new president, but those ideas are shadowed by the steady reminders by Nixon himself of the circumstances that are causing him to resign the Presidency that overall make Nixon’s arguments to logic and his credibility seem

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Reagan applies oratorical devices and figurative language to explain to the nation the passion and bravery the seven astronauts have. He uses parallel structure and listing to imply the passion and bravery the Challenger crew have. “But, we never lost an astronaut in flight, we’ve never had a tragedy like this” (2). The parallel structure creates a cause and effect to the tragedy. Its shocking devastation, however, it shows the nation how the future is creating new things.

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Since the Challenger crew were able to pursue their mission with courage, it is now the future generation’s turn to undertake where they have left off, and finish where they started. Overall, Ronald Reagan took advantage of his enormous platform to give a national eulogy in order to alleviate the pain caused by the loss of the Challenger seven. Raegen pursues his delivery with the use of rhetorical devices such as Pathos and Parataxis in order to appeal to his audience’s emotions while at the

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