Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Compare and Contrast

The two speeches, from Wallace and Morrison, are similar by saying that everything we do or say has an impact on everyday life, whether it is in our lives or the lives around us.

In “This is Water” Wallace talks about the struggles and problems of being an adult after a long day at work. Wallace explains that adults are quick to judge others and can be annoyed by everything everyone does around them and think that whatever that person is doing isn’t as important as what’s going on in their life believing that he/she is the center of attention. Which isn’t true because every single person living today has his or her own problems and no one is special in this world, but our brain gives the allusion that we are.

In the “Nobel Lecture” Morrison’s speech talks about how we as people can change our perspective on things simply by language.  The story starts when a couple young kids ask a blind woman, which seems to be Morrison in the story, if the bird in their hand is alive or dead. She replies with “I don’t know” at first, but then soon follows with an explanation different then what the kid’s thought saying it’s up to you whether the bird lives or not. Which becomes the morale of the story, the element of choice. We as humans have complete control of what we say or do whether it’s positive or negative the choice is ours.

Wallace and Morrison’s stories are mostly similar, yet they have their differences. Such as Wallace talks about how our mood and thoughts affect how we deal with everyday life. While Morrison explains that what we say and do will affect the outcome of more then just us, it will affect everything around us.


2 comments:

  1. I agree with your point of view about these two lectures on how they both are similar. I also thought that Wallace's lecture also showed how your choice in emotion or how you view those around you can effect certain situations. I also viewed Morrison's story as if she where speaking of herself as the blind woman giving advice to the children in the story. I also agree with your statement about how both basically talk about how humans have complete control of what they say or do.

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  2. I also agree with your view of the speeches having a similar message, but have a very different way of portraying their ideas. I enjoyed Wallace's banter about the store trip and the other people in the way which I referred to as "mindless drones" when I talked about the speech later. I believe his speech fit very well with his audience of new graduates.

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