Commencement speeches, intended to inspire and guide new graduates, often employ distinct rhetorical strategies to connect with their audience. J.K. Rowling's 2008 Harvard address and David Foster Wallace's 2005 Kenyon College speech, both delivered to graduating classes, offer compelling case studies in persuasive communication. While Rowling utilizes personal narrative and a pragmatic, forward-looking outlook to advise on navigating life's uncertainties, Wallace adopts a more philosophical and introspective approach, focusing on the conscious choice of perspective in the face of daily monotony. Despite their different stylistic and thematic emphases, both speeches effectively engage their listeners by demonstrating empathy and offering relatable frameworks for understanding the challenges of adulthood.
Rowling's speech centers on her personal journey from adversity to success, employing the rhetorical device of ethos by establishing her credibility through shared experience. She recounts her struggles with poverty and single parenthood before achieving literary fame, framing these hardships not as deterrents but as formative elements. This narrative strategy, relying heavily on pathos, elicits a sympathetic response from the audience, making her subsequent advice more palatable. Her advice to "imagine the worst" and then realize "you can survive it" encourages a pragmatic resilience. She emphasizes the importance of imagination and empathy, suggesting these are tools for both personal fulfillment and societal betterment. Rowling’s structured argument, moving from personal anecdote to broader life lessons, provides a clear, actionable roadmap for graduates facing the unknown. She skillfully uses repetition for emphasis, notably her recurring call to embrace imagination, reinforcing her central message of empowered agency.
David Foster Wallace, in contrast, tackles the existential challenges of adult life with a distinctively philosophical and often ironic tone. His Kenyon speech, famously titled "This Is Water," uses anecdote and analogy to illustrate his core argument: that the real, meaningful struggle of adult life is the daily, conscious choice of how to perceive and react to one's environment. He paints a vivid picture of grocery store aisles and traffic jams as mundane battlegrounds where self-centeredness and entitlement can easily take root. Wallace’s logos is less about empirical data and more about reasoned, albeit abstract, philosophical propositions about consciousness and choice. He employs irony and self-deprecation to disarm the audience and create a sense of shared vulnerability. His use of repetition, particularly the phrase "this is water," serves as a constant reminder of the unseen context that shapes our daily experiences. The speech’s meandering yet purposeful structure mirrors the often-unpredictable nature of thought, drawing the listener into a deeper contemplation of their own mental habits.
While their approaches diverge—Rowling's grounded in personal experience and pragmatic advice, Wallace's rooted in philosophical inquiry and existential awareness—both speakers achieve a powerful connection with their graduating audiences. Rowling's relatable narrative and emphasis on resilience offer immediate comfort and direction. Wallace's more challenging, introspective call to conscious awareness prompts a deeper, ongoing reflection. Both, however, demonstrate a profound understanding of the anxieties and hopes of young adults poised on the precipice of their futures. They don't offer easy answers but rather frameworks for engagement: Rowling suggests how to endure and thrive, while Wallace proposes how to live with awareness and intention. The effectiveness of both speeches lies in their authenticity and their shared commitment to helping graduates find meaning and purpose beyond the academic sphere.