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Both "This is Water" by David Foster Wallace and "Nobel Lecture" prepared by Tori Morrison were speeches given at two different types of events. Wallace gave his speech to a graduating class of college students while Morrison recited her speech after receiving a Nobel Prize in literature. Wallace's main purpose was to prepare the alumni of what was to come in their very new lives as they would put their degrees into action. He explained that they would soon be getting into a routine that they will go through "day in and day out" that might seem never ending and agonizing. Wallace connects with the reader by saying that it's easy to think that the world revolves around you and that when you're having a bad day, everything just happens to be negatively affecting you. The main point to his speech is that he's advising the students that you can either sulk on your bad days, or you can positively turn the situation around and be aware that maybe the world doesn't revolve around you and others around you could be having a tougher time in their lives. By realizing that you're not alone, you can spread positive emotions onto others and attempt to make each and every day better for yourself and others even when you've been affected by situations that you cannot control. Tori Morrison's Nobel Prize speech has a different audience with a much different message. Her award was given to her because of her literary achievements, so naturally her message was about how important languange is. She told a story about a blind woman who was approached by a few young people who asked her the question, "Is the bird I am holding living or dead?" Her response was that she didn't know if the bird was alive or dead, but it was in their hands. They later tell the woman that she was wrong and there was no bird at all and poke fun at the fact that her answer was no where close to correct and that she had amounted to nothing. Ultimately the kids end up going into great detail of a deep story about slaves savoring one of their last nights alive as their inevitable death was soon to come, but that was unimportant to them. What was important was that moment of peace. The blind woman finally could explain to them that by saying, "It is in your hands," actually was talking about the importance and power of spreading a message through language.
I agree with you on how the settings that the authors of the speeches were in effected the speeches. You can tell how David Wallace's speech has a more positive mood, even when talking about such negative things, to mirror all of the positive feelings going on during a graduation whereas Toni Morrison's speech was given during a Nobel Prize awarding and she did not need to mimic the mood of the audience as much since they would automatically cling to hers.
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