Toni Morrison and David Foster Wallace comparison

      As I first read through the renounced Nobel Lecture by Toni Morrison and the philosophical "This is Water" speech by David Foster Wallace I could not seem to find how these two pieces are related, but after some more in depth reading, I realized this lecture and speech are more similar than what meets the eye. Both men love the idea of self empowerment, the idea of controlling your future sparks their imagination and so they use such ideals in their works. Toni Morrison's folk story about the wise old lady revolved around the ideal of the power of language and how no one can take this power from you, where as David Foster was more so leaning towards the importance and understanding of every day life. While they both have a positive connotation and give their listeners/readers a bit of courage and motivation, their tool of choice to control said power is different. Toni was more verbose in his speech unlike David's more straight to the point aspect, either way both presenters want to influence realization onto their audience. They both were literary device heavy, Wallace loved his hyperboles and Morrison was more of a metaphor man, still both men caressed their work in such a way that their own words were the tools to spark our minds into creating our own words of encouragement. Both works, through the power of language, brought me to the conclusion that the power is in my hands; no matter the bland day in and day out of everyday life or the pressure of others trying to put me down, this is my life and I control it.