Ronald Reagan Challenger Explosion Speech Analysis

In his “Challenger Explosion” speech, Pres. Ronald Reagan comforts the nation in the aftermath of NASA’s Challenger Space Shuttle exploded shortly after takeoff killing all seven astronauts. In this speech, he used rhetorical devices, such as alliteration, allusion, anaphora, and euphemism to relay his feelings of sadness and grief. In his speech in the aftermath of the Challenger explosion, Pres. Reagan used alliteration to convey his feelings of sadness to the families of the seven astronauts lost. He repeats the words special, spirit, and says to show as to what high regards he held the astronauts. Pres. Reagan said that the astronauts “had [a] special grace, that special spirit that says, “Give me a challenge and I’ll meet it with joy” (Reagan 1). The repetition of the words special, spirit, and says means that Reagan believed that the astronauts had something no one else had that differentiated them from the rest of society. Additionally, Ronald Reagan

president Ronald Reagan used allusion in his speech to the families of the victims. Pres. Reagan used allusion when he alluded to a quote by an early historian about the death of Sir Francis Drake. Reagan alluded to the death of Drake who had “lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it” (Reagan 1). Reagan alludes to this quote because he believes that in the same way Drake was connected to the ocean in life and death, so were the astronauts of the NASA space shuttle. In addition to an early historian, Pres. Reagan also alludes to the poetry of British-American poet, John Gillespie Magee Jr. To Reagan, the astronauts “slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God” (Reagan 1). This is an allusion because Reagan references the deaths of the astronauts to the poem, High Flight by John G. Magee Jr. He believes that the astronauts have left the natural world and have connected with God in the