SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DAVID.F.WALLACE'S "THIS IS WATER" AND TONI MORRISON'S "NOBEL LECTURE"

     Power plays a major role in life. It can either have a positive or negative impact on us as individuals depending on how we choose to use it or react to its enforcement. Both Wallace and Morrison's speeches lay emphasis on the most powerful assets humans have, how and when to use it. Morrison made it clear enough in her speech that language is the most powerful weapon and what actually makes us stand out as an individual, a group of people, a race and even a nation. Wallace on the other hand said in his speech that our mindset of life and the experiences that comes along with it is the most powerful characteristic of we humans as it dictates our actions and decisions.

     Old and young, wise and foolish, the experienced and the novice. These are tensions that are evidently present in both speeches and both authors used different metaphors to explain the relationship between each side. Wallace uses an anecdote of a younger fish and an older one in the same body of water, the same situation, the same journey but a completely different perspective. The older (or wiser) one pays more attention to the situation its surrounded by (Water) which in this case, I interpret as "paying attention to life itself" while the two young fishes have absolutely no clue of what life is not to talk of how to cope with the challenges and unexpected experiences it throws at us. However, Morrison uses the tale of a blind African American woman versus a group of young people to make clear the tensions talked about earlier. The metaphor she uses to symbolize language is the bird which was in the hands of one the young ones and this also ties back to Wallace using water to symbolize life.

     We as humans have the power and the sole right to  make a decision on what to use the power in our hands for. We can either be a slave to that power or its master. In line 18 of the fifth paragraph of Wallace's speech he mentioned an "old cliché about "the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master" the mind is always willing to do whatever  think whatever but has no control over itself or we as individuals.

   Religion is another similarity between the two speeches as Morrison made reference to the tower of babel to symbolize the necessity of a diversity in language. She makes mention of how one language which was spoken by all and one building which was being built with the aim of reaching heaven doesn't necessarily depict peace instead the understanding and appreciation of the power of diversity and preservation of language might eventually bring forth the peace we need in life. Wallace also talks about religion as one of the choices we have to worship and how it greatly affects our mindset. This also applies to other materialistic things we worship and how it doesn't bring peace or happiness into our lives.

  A major difference between the two speeches is that Morrison's speech revolves around the issue of the African American race and the history it has. she seemed to be passing across an important message or being a role model to African Americans right after winning the speech but Wallace made it clear in his commencement speech that he wasn't trying to be inspirational or be a role model in any way. Basically he might not even be practicing what he was saying at that point in time and this can be clearly seen by the way he committed suicide despite talking about how to avoid doing so in his speech.

  In conclusion, both speeches give an insight and a cause to think about how much power we humans have even though we have absolutely no idea we do. Also they made clear how to use these powers wisely and the consequences of each one.