Written in two unique styles, David Foster Wallace's "This is Water" and Toni Morrison's "Nobel Lecture" both emphasize people's differing choices on how they want to live their life.
Wallace focuses more on the mental and emotional views on life such as the "default-setting" your mind is programmed to think in. Morrison mainly provides the reader with a more physical and auditory perspective, utilizing life lessons such as the bird who is "in your hands", emphasizing the literal and figurative double meaning of the bird's present position.
Although they have few differences, both writers agree on authenticity of individual thinking, as well as the genuine consideration of others' views. The kids and the old, wise lady from "Nobel Lecture" learned from each other; "How lovely it is, this thing we have done - together." The main character from the story "This Is Water" starts off full of negativity and no remorse, describing drivers in daily traffic as "stupid god-damn people". Toward the end, he adapts positive views, like "[staying] conscious and alive day in and day out", elaborating on less distraction by one's own default mind setting.
If you think outside of the stories and compare them both, they are completely different. In "This Is Water", the meaning is that the hardest challenge to overcome is in your mind. It states that no matter what you worship, whether it be real or fake, it is used to promote emotional happiness.
In "Nobel Lecture" it is not about the bird or the encounter with the young people at all. It is about how everyone is completely different and how it is important to never lose the history that our ancestors have lived through. At first the old woman is hesitant but after they earn her trust she tells them of "the wagonload of slaves" and of the "ships turned away from shorelines at Easter", describing the importance of language and stories.
Although both writing techniques vary in structure and style, both Wallace and Morrison's short stories began on a negative note and ended with positive reinforcement on the individual character's situations.
I agree with you on how Wallace talks more about the mental and emotional aspects of viewing things in a different light. I also think that if you don't dive in and dissect and analyze these two speeches, it would seem like they are focusing on totally different subjects; especially since they use very different scenarios in order to bring their point across. I also agree on how both speakers believe in considering other peoples' feelings, views, and situations instead of the thinking that the world revolves around you and your problems twenty four/seven. I also thought that Wallace's tone in his speech was a little negative in the beginning, especially when he describes some life lessons as "banal platitudes"; but his speech did get a little more positive near the end.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your thoughts of how each seem completely similar, but with further analyzation are in all actuality quite different. Both strategically centered around the idea of ones "fate" being in their own hands literally and figuratively, but at the same time each with different motives in the end. I also agree that the structures of these speeches were put together with similar orders of events concerning positivity and negativity, but the writing techniques were (obviously) different due to the audience that each author was presenting in front of. Wallace to a group of college seniors at their commencement and Morrison receiving her Nobel Prize award.
ReplyDelete