Remember Forever Rhetorical Analysis

Remembered Forever

“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’” With these bittersweet words, President Ronald Reagan concluded his address to the mourning American citizens. Given on the evening of January 28, 1986, what should have been a celebratory evening turned into a long night of lament and sadness due to the loss of the Space Shuttle “Challenger,”. Launching majestically into space but then exploding and killing all seven astronauts, among which one was a teacher, all of America, including children and students, watched this catastrophe live on their television, instantly placing gloom

and worry on all types of exploration. President Ronald Reagan, delivered this speech to comfort the families of the astronauts as well as America in general to give hope and to encourage further explorations through his tactful usage of language and authority.
Speaking in an authoritative and knowledgeable manner, President Reagan uses this to comfort the nation.

Starting off stating, “I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans,” he showed the graveness of the accident and gave it priority over everything else. As the president, he rarely addressed the entire nation, but by discussing this, he gave it utmost importance. In addition, his taking the time to honor these astronauts, showed that he saw these people as heroes, lifting them up to the level of military soldiers or policemen, serving their

country.
Next, President Reagan utilized different examples to encouraged the people to continue exploring. Recognizing America's heartbrokenness toward the fallen astronauts and their discouragement in exploration, President Reagan reminded America that the astronauts, “were aware of the dangers.” He then shows even though NASA sent many missions before, and this tragedy caused the most deaths, the astronauts were “still pioneers.” Then, President Reagan also mentions America of Sir Francis Drake, a 15th hundred sea explorer who died while on his voyage. Using this example to show that deaths do happen in exploration, he explains how the Americans cannot lose heart and encouraged them to keep exploring, especially in the space field even after this tragedy.
To comfort America, President Reagan employs emotional and motivating words to connect with his audience.

Ending his first opening statement with, “This is truly a national loss,” President Reagan instantly affirmed that this catastrophe would cause everyone to mourn, uniting the nation. Then he addressed the families of the astronauts, recognizing them for their loss. Following this, he spoke directly to all the children who watched this tragedy live on television. He recognized the sadness of the children, yet he inspires them to keep exploring as he demonstrates how the astronauts would have wanted this. Finally, he addressed the people from NASA who also experienced great loss at the failure of this mission. Reaching out and thanking them for their “dedication and professionalism,” he also recognized NASA’s “anguish,” yet motivated them to press on exploring even after the deaths of the astronauts. Here he addressed the many people of United States to reach them emotionally and have them recognize that he understood and sympathized with them to help them, through the difficult

time.
Immediately after this tragedy, many people rightfully feared to advance in other types of dangerous exploration after seeing the consequences that cost people their lives. However, President Reagan utilized this speech to address their worries and demonstrates through different examples why they needed to continue. Knowing that many children watch this catastrophe, President Reagan reaches out to the children and their families to motivate them to look further in the scientific fields instead of retracting due to worry. In this speech, President Reagan said, “We will never forget them [astronauts],” but due to the way he amazingly crafted this speech, with different techniques to comfort and support his nation, America with also forever remember him and his speech.