President Ronald Reagan in his mournful, yet inspiring speech, “Explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger Address to the Nation”, addresses the horrific tragedy of the Challenger Seven, while also motivating the future generations of America to take part in the ever growing space program. Reagan adopts a solemn tone in order to mourn the loss of the astronauts with his American viewers. Through the use of various rhetorical strategies, Reagan not only provides his condolences for the astronaut’s families, but also uses the accident as way to inspire those who may have lost hope on space exploration to look at the sacrifice made by the Challenger Seven as a stepping stone in the advancement of humanity. In order to sympathize with his American audience, Reagan utilises pathos to mourn the tragedy. He begins his …show more content…
He reassures the children that “the Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them” (6). Reagan explains that sacrifices must be made in order to progress and that the Challenger accident is no exception to this statement. He also reasons that their sacrifice will not be made in vain if future generations maintain faith in the space program. Reagan then alludes to the famed explorer Sir Francis Drake, and how a historian described his life as “he lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it” (10). He compares the explorer’s tragic demise to that of the Challenger crew as both parties were fully aware of the dangers of exploration. He uses this historical example to provide a precedent of how far humanity has come from the sacrifice of an explorer that lived centuries ago. Reagan reasons that if that sacrifice led to the eventual conquering of the sea frontier, the rewards that the Challenger’s sacrifice will reap will be unprecedented in