Both, David Wallace's "This is Water" speech and Toni Morrison's "Nobel Lecture" speech were given to possibly change the way you think throughout your everyday life. They each begin using simple metaphors that you can apply to life as a whole. "This is Water" used a fish story, and in the passage the author (David Wallace) stated that, "The immediate point of the fish story is that the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about." In Toni Morrison's "Nobel Lecture" the metaphor used is a wise blind woman was asked by two young people who were, "disproving her clairvoyance", whether or not the bird in one of the kids hand was dead or alive. The blind woman understands the meaning of words much more than the average person, because the words she uses are her only tool to communicate or interact with people due to the fact that she cannot see.
One major difference I noticed between the two speeches is that "This is Water" was a commencement speech to a group of graduates whereas the "Nobel Lecture" was a speech given after Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize that was targeting African-Americans or possibly just minorities in general. Another difference is "This is Water" was more about how we handle the difficult situations that come throughout our everyday life and the "Nobel Lecture" speech was given to show that the words we use can be much more powerful than we intend. Another thing is that Morrison mentioned is that the words we use can be used as a tool, good and bad.
I agree that a common goal in both speeches was to change the way the audience experiences life. However, I feel as though the focus in David Wallace's speech "This is Water" and Toni Morrison's "Nobel Lecture" are similar, just not at first glance. Under the surface, I believe that both speeches are suggesting to the audience that they need to change their perspectives. In Wallace's speech he suggests we need to change our perspective on what we see each day; to yourself in another person's shoes. While Morrison's speech is also asking us to change our perspective; our perspective on how words should be used.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Kelsey , about the common goal in the speeches to change the way the audience goes through life. But, I feel that Morrison motive in his speech is to get kids to speak to elderly and learn from their wisdom ,and learn from their past.To better their lives. In Wallace's speech, I feel that he comes at you with a bit of a wake up call to the real world. In which, everybody will need a wake up call sometime in their life. Also, he comes with realism and scenarios you can really relate to.
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