Pathos (and a Bit of Ethos)

If pathos were a salsa, Reagan would be slopping a giant ladle full of garlicky pico de gallo on America's burrito of sympathy. And he will be serving seconds.

It's the kind of thing that will stay with you for days…or decades.

Emotions are inevitable. It's a speech about death, and Reagan is responding to the heightened emotions of a country in crisis. There is no way around acknowledging seven people lost their lives, so Reagan discusses it frankly and calmly.

But he doesn't dwell on the misfortune. Instead he redirects the emotional focus onto a celebration of the astronauts' lives. Like when he says,

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." (13)

He also jazzes up that pathos with a bit of ethos, highlighting the admirable characters of each crewmember and reflecting on their virtues:

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. (44)

That's a powerful statement to make about someone whom you've never met, but that's beside the point. To his audience, Reagan isn't talking about dead strangers, he's talking about American heroes.

His words don't attempt to rationalize the deaths of the astronauts; that would be heartless. But he does attempt to make sense of the pain of their deaths by viewing them from a historical perspective.

He provides a bigger picture of human discovery and peril, in which the Challenger Seven become a significant part. The takeaway message is not that the astronauts were victims, but that they made the ultimate sacrifice.

After all, it wasn't called Challenger for nothing. That thing was a challenge.