Narrative In President Reagan's Speech

President Reagan uses narrative in his speech to help illustrate his main points as well as strengthen his argument. Reagan uses the embedded narrative style. This means the narratives he uses are placed inside the speech at key points. By using narrative, Reagan is able to give credibility to his argument as well as create identification between himself and the audience. The credibility is shown when Reagan uses a well-known explorer to connect the Challenger accident to a story that offers comfort to families. This narrative helps demonstrate that though the spacemen died, they died knowing the risks, but they were ready to accept the risks. Without this narrative, the loss may have seemed grimmer than it was and less heroic as Reagan was …show more content…
One value Reagan stresses is courage and bravery. He mentions that the future is meant for courageous and brave people. This means, even as children, Americans value being brave. While this is directed at the school children, it seemed to apply to the entire audience. One vision the audience holds, according to the speech, is the idea of being pioneers of space. This stood out when Reagan was delivering his speech. It relates to the idea that this is not the end for the space station. This is still the beginning, and there is still time to move past this incident. Reagan even says that the space station will continue to run, and his faith in it has not diminished even given the circumstances of the Challenger. Another value that could be picked up on was freedom. This was mentioned towards the end of Reagan’s speech. Reagan himself mentions freedom is not meant to change. The way the Challenger was broadcasted was open to the public. What Reagan is showing in this segment is some do not have this same opportunity to witness and event like this. The accident could have been covered up with a fake story or meant to disappear from the public eye, but America did not allow this to happen. The accident may seem grim, but it is a demonstration of freedom, or more specifically truth. The truth is something that the audience should continue to look for even in the face of tragedies like the Challenger shuttle