Hansen | 1

Wendi Hansen

Communication

Roger Johnson

Analysis Paper

Reagan’s Challenger Speech

3 April 2013

Topic: Analysis of the Ronald Reagan’s “Challenger Speech”

General Purpose: To inform.

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about persuasive tools that Reagan used to effectively get his message across.

Thesis Statement: President Ronald Reagan’s use of make his “Challenger Speech”

INTRODUCTION:

Ronald Reagan gave an address to the nation from the oval office on January 28, 1986. The evening was scheduled for the State of the Union address. The space shuttle Challenger was to be the first mission to put a civilian into space. Just six hours before Reagan gave the speech the shuttle exploded and killed the seven astronauts aboard. In less than five minutes Reagan was able to inform the nation of the challenger disaster using effective speech devices such as anaphora, alliteration, apostrophe, pathos and allusion.

BODY:

  1. Reagan uses anaphora by putting “more” before the different groups of people he mentions creating equal importance between them and emphasizes that despite this tragedy the future of space exploration will not stop.
  1. A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking by O’Hair, Rubenstein and Stewart explains the proper use of anaphora.
  1. Anaphora is a form of repetition where the speaker repeats a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or sentences.
  2. For example:

Jesus preached:

Blessed are the poor in spirit…….

Blessed are the meek…….

Blessed are the peacemakers……

  1. Two of Reagan’s use of anaphora in this speech are:
  1. “We’ve never lost an astronaut in flight; we’ve never had a tragedy like this.”
  2. “There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space.”
  1. Reagan uses alliteration to highlight the spirit of the seven crew members that died on the Challenger. Reagan emphasizes that they died as heroes and grabs attention.
  1. A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking by O’Hair, Rubenstein and Stewart states that alliteration lends speech a poetic, musical rhythm.
  1. Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds, usually initial consonants, in two or more neighboring words or syllables.
  2. Classic examples of alliteration in speeches include phrases such as Jesse Jackson’s “Down with dope, up with hope” and former United States President Spiro Agnew’s “nattering nabobs of negativism”.
  1. Regan said, “Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, ‘Give me a challenge’, and I’ll meet it with joy.”
  1. By interrupting his address to speak directly to school children who might have watched the challenger tragedy, Reagan uses apostrophe.
  1. The website gives the definition of apostrophe.
  1. Apostrophe is a rhetorical device which is used directly to address an absent or imaginary person or object as if alive and present and could reply.
  2. An example of apostrophe is “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?” as well as, “O Captain! My Captain.
  1. Reagan used apostrophe to speak to the school children as he said, “And I want to say something to the school children of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle’s takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things . It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. 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. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them.
  1. Reagan uses pathos by appealing to our “American Pride” and helps to unite Americans despite the tragedy.
  1. A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking explains pathos as an appeal to emotion.
  1. Pathos appeals can get the audience’s attention and stimulate a desire to act but must be used ethically.
  2. Feelings such as pride, love, compassion, anger, shame and fear underlie many of our actions and motivate us to think and feel as we do.
  1. Reagan uses pathos in this speech saying “we don’t keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That’s the way freedom is, and we wouldn’t change it for a minute.”
  1. Reagan uses the literary device allusion to end his speech strong and memorable.
  1. The website terminology.org says that the literary device allusion stimulates different ideas and associations using only a couple of words.
  1. Allusion relies on the reader being able to understand the allusion and being familiar with the meaning hidden behind the words.
  2. Describing someone as a “Romeo” makes an allusion to the famous young lover in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and Stopping by Woods on a snowy evening, a poem by Robert Frost.
  1. Reagan made an allusion to a poem t the end of his speech.
  1. “slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God”

CONCLUSION:

  1. Reagan’s alert of the end of his speech was when he said, “The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives.”
  2. The speech came to an end soon after his alert that was followed by just one sentence.
  3. Reagan did not reiterate all of his main points from the speech but he did say that “The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives.” A sentence that did reiterate one of the main points, the astronaut’s ultimate sacrifice of their lives in the name of exploration.
  4. Reagan recognizes the crew as heroes and remembers them as such, and in the line “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them,” suggests that his audience will remember them as he does; that is his challenge.
  5. Reagan provides a sense of closure and makes a lasting impression when he quotes a poem written by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. called “High Flight”, when he said that the astronauts “slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God”.

Works Cited:

“Challenger.” Ronald Reagan. Speech. 28 Jan 1986. YouTube. 1 April 2013

. N.p.. Web. 1 Apr 2013. <

. N.p.. Web. 1 Apr 2013. <

"The History Place."historyplace.com. N.p.. Web. 1 Apr 2013.