Ronald Reagan’s acknowledgment to the disaster was sincere and powerful because he successfully used pathos which appeal to the emotions, logos which appeal to logic, and ethos which appeal to the credibility of the speaker. In our textbook, the authors stated that there are three different ways the writers can appeal or grab their audience’s attention (Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz, and Walters 26). Those three appeals are known as logos, pathos, and ethos. When reacting to a tragedy like Challenger Explosion, it is the duty of the sitting president to help the country heal. With the countries emotions at the forefront, Reagan’s speech was written to appeal to our emotions. When we talk about appealing to emotions; another word that we can use is pathos. Which is usually apparent when the United States suffers a disaster. Yet, the nation is already upset and senses a great deal of emotions. Unfortunately, when dealing with a situation at this caliber, pathos is the toughest to grasp. Because rather than bringing up sadness – you are trying to control those emotions. …show more content…
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” (Reagan para. 3) When reading this line of the speech, I can tell that Reagan really recognized the pain and applauds the sacrifice that the astronauts made. The president also reinsured the audience that the astronauts were heroic and unique, without overstating the
The speech did not convey the author’s experience, but the author did tell all different people how to treat this thing. The style speech is very formal and serious. We can know the claim from different details. It was clear. The diction and word choice is very appropriate, because author represents the American government. I think the structure of this speech is quite clear. First, Reagan mentioned this tragedy, and then, he says something for the families of seven and the schoolchildren and people who worked in NASA. In the end, he came back to honor this seven people for their contribution. The tone of this speech is sad but heroic.
President Roosevelt?s speech establishes a few different examples of pathos. Pathos was the most reoccurring appeal in his speech. At the very beginning of the speech the president says, ?Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 ? a date which will live in infamy ? the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by navel and air forces of the Empire of Japan.? The fact that this day will forever be remembered by all citizens of the United States definitely appeals to people?s emotions. President Roosevelt also mentions, ?The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost.? This is an effective appeal to pathos because death affects your emotions. Thousands of people were affected by this tragic event and I?m sure it touched many people?s emotions. In the middle of the speech president Roosevelt says that Japan also attacked Malaya, Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippine Islands, Wake Island, and Midway Island. This definitely appeals to the audiences emotions, especially if anyone had family or knew someone who lived over there.
Due to the rapidly changing America, in his farewell address, Ronald Reagan expresses the need for unification of America, and America’s culture. In Reagan’s address, he uses many rhetorical devices to advance his purpose of unifying America, for instance, Reagan utilizes tone, syntax, and pathos to portray his pride, hopefulness, and patriotism for America. He uses these devices to show Americans of the unification America needs.
Reagan carefully chose his words during his speech on the Challenger Disaster, using specific pronouns completely changed the way the country received the message. It was initiated when he said, “we’ve never lost an astronaut in flight; we’ve never had a tragedy like this” (5). Later he also stated: “We’ve grown used to the idea of space, and perhaps we forget that we’ve only just begun” (7). Reagan’s use of “we” throughout the speech shows the nation that even high figures such as celebrities and political figure, in which Reagan represented both, also feel as the common people do in times of struggle and devastation. Allowing the citizens of America a shoulder to cry on for a dark and challenging time in the history of the country. Towards the end of the text Reagan started to create allusions for the American people to compare the fallen astronauts to. Such as when Reagan stated: “the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, “He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it”” (10). Also he makes reference to the religious figures at the end when he says, “”slipped the surly bongs of earth” to “touch the face of God”” (11). Using these allusions, Reagan was able to effectively convince the audience that the astronauts died for a reason and a cause, to expand our knowledge of space and explore what it could possibly contain. In the case that Reagan had not given this speech it could be possible that many people around the world would want to back off from exploring space because it could kill people that attempt to travel into it. But Reagan’s speech was able to revoke confidence in NASA and other space programs, letting moms let their kids become astronauts and not saying no because of how dangerous it could be.
Reagan adds his feelings of faith and respect in our space program and the people at NASA who make it possible. He goes on to assure that space exploration will continue. While addressing the school children who were watching, Reagan states that "the future belongs to the brave." He also states unfortunately painful things like this sometimes happen and sadly it is all part of the process of exploration and discovery(Reagan)”. He ends his speech with a beautifully articulated conclusion. ”The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, or 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(Reagan).” “The last line was taken from a sonnet written by WWII pilot John Gillespie Magee titled "High Flight", but was a very memorable way to end the speech.
President Reagan uses testimonial appeal in order to communicate and help change the mood of American citizens and to reassure them that regardless of the tragedy that occurred , NASA will continue to explore in space. For example he says, “I’ve always had great faith in and respect for our space program, We don’t hide our space program. We don’t keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public…- We’ll continue our quest in space” (para.5). Also, for instance he states “ The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them” (para.4).This supports the idea that even though NASA hit a rough patch , this is a part of expanding their horizons so they will continue doing their jobs which is enduring space exploration. This proves that besides the fact that 7 crew members died doing their jobs and being courageous, the journey should not stop and the company should continue moving forward and doing what they do best. Reagan is able to effectively communicate feelings of devoted and enjoyment by using loaded language because as mentioned , NASA will not stop space exploring due to this one accident. And it worked because now it would cause people to support NASA. Reagan is able to effectively communicate feelings of hope and faith because he is trying to make the citizens see that there is a bright side to the situation which is that even though their family and friends died in the shuttle, they are not alone. And even though the accident was tragic, that was actually a motivation for the company to continue
. . ] Mr. Gorbachev—Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" In this part, Ronald Reagan used pathos to create excitement and happiness among his audience which made them cheer, and in a sense, he wants an engaged audience to be reassured that they are on his side. Another appeal to emotions in the speech is when he states "I pledge to you my country's efforts to help overcome these burdens." In this section, pathos was used to make people feel that he (Ronald Reagan) is trustworthy and can rely on his judgments. Also, at the end of is the speech he asserts "I invite those who protested then—I invite those who protest today—to mark this fact: Because we remained strong, the Soviets came back to the table." Which creates emotions, lifting up the spirit of the audience as he tells them to remain
In conclusion, President Reagan was operative in convincing his audience that he was the right choice for who should lead the U.S. I firmly believe that Ronald Reagan was the last good President we had in office. He not only kept to his word, but also was able to inspire the American people and remind them what hope was and what it looked and felt like. Shown through this piece, it is evident that he was an eloquent communicator and an overall persuasive orator. By using pathos, rhetorical questioning,
The last element of the rhetorical situation is speech. Reagan’s primary objective of this speech was to show his condolence to those of who suffered from the accident and involve audience to join for grief. Throughout his speech his ideas were carried in a coherent way, without deviating from his objective. Reagan achieved this through using various words and phrases that magnify his emotion. Using phrases such as “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of god” illustrated his feeling towards the situation without much of explanation. In addition, because he understood that the audience of this particular speech consisted of diversity of
Logos, pathos, and ethos have been utilized in writing from history to current day writing and literature. The three elements are called modes of persuasion that are used to convince the audience. We will be evaluating how Jackson used logos, pathos, and ethos to make his writing more convincing and appealing to his audience. To begin with, we will be examining logos used in writing.
Richard Nixon opened his speech by proclaiming this would be the 37th time he has spoken to American citizens, and that every time he did so was to discuss matters that would affect the nation as a whole. The opening statement establishes his credibility, that he does not speak on national television without taking the nation’s interest into consideration. Nixon wanted to establish a connection between himself and the audience, which he did so through pathos. Nixon apologizes to the audience by admitting his misjudgments and justifying them as pertinent for the betterment of the country. An audience likes to be able to relate to a speaker, and Nixon created a link between him and the audience the moment he accepted some of his faults.
This speech has meaning, excites emotions and reaches out to all, which makes it a great speech. Although Reagan chooses to ignore his administrations responsibility in The Challenger disaster, he concentrates instead on reassurance of the nation which makes this speech uplifting to the American people.
Emotion is a human instinct that most people find hard to control. It can completely dismantle life as someone may know it. Authors can access emotion and use it to persuade their audience to believe or do a certain thing. Of course, ethics and logic can be used as well, but nothing can compare to the power of pathos. The Crucible, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, and A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson all use emotion through word choice to persuade their respective audiences.
The last element of the rhetorical situation is speech. Reagan’s primary objective of this speech was to show his condolence to those of who suffered from the accident and involve audience to join for grief. Throughout his speech his ideas were carried in a coherent way, without deviating from his objective. Reagan achieved this through using various words and phrases that magnify his emotion. Using phrases such as “slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of god” illustrated his feeling towards the situation without much of explanation. In addition, because he understood that the audience of this particular speech consisted of diversity of people, he used words that are more approachable and easy to the audience.
On the fourth paragraph Reagan describes how the astronauts and how they were pioneers. They took the challenge and did what they had to do without any hesitation. Reagan also wants