Compare and Contrast

The speech, "This is Water" by David Foster Wallace and the "Nobel Lecture" by Toni Morrison in some ways generate a common idea of truth but tend to have a different way of expressing their thoughts and acknowledging it to their specific audience. Wallace’s speech is definitely a straightforward and an amusing read from common experience. On the other hand, Morrison’s speech is from a story she had heard and a very intellectual read.

Both of the speeches approach the audience at the beginning with a story. In Wallace’s speech it is about the young fishes asking each other “what the hell is water?” Similarly, in Morrison’s speech it is about the old blind woman dealing with mockery by young people who disapprove of her wisdom due to her disability of  blindness. Although the speeches do show that reality sometimes maybe unknown to the eyes but that it exists in one form or another.

Along with similarities there are many differences between the two speeches. Wallace's speech is made for college students proceeding towards the real world by getting out of their protected shells. In his speech he presents the idea of self-centeredness which is something college students can relate with as well as with young children and adults. He then goes on to tell about the real life after college in the work force by using common experiences of tiring work, grocery shopping, and heavy traffic to convey his point about life. He suggests that life is not the imagined perfect life. Unlike Wallace’s speech, Morrison’s speech is made for people involved with the Nobel Prize. Her speech is based on a story she had heard of about an “old woman blind and wise.” In her speech when the old woman answers the question about whether the “bird is dead or alive” with such an unusual response for the young people, they go through all the possibilities that the old woman could have gone through to answer the question “correctly.” Through the act of silence and such a strange answer the woman conveys the message that the style of languages can affect a person either positively or negatively.