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Commencement Speech By George Sanders Analysis

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It is a long road to kindness. And everyone gets on the road at different points. Some are born with a natural instinct to be kind and will start at a point further up the road. Some are born with a natural instinct to prioritize themselves over others and they will start a point further down the road. No matter where you start on the road the result is the same. Over your travel, up the road, you will gain experiences. These experiences will help you get to your end goal. No matter how long up the road your end goal is the result of your travel on the road will be the same. You will have become kinder. Kindness is one of the things American writer and university professor George Saunders talks about in his Commencement address which he delivered …show more content…

Even though the language is not too formal it is still quite intellectual as the audience just graduated university. The speech starts with George Sanders making fun of himself “a traditional form has evolved for this type of speech, which is: some old fart, his best years behind him… …(that would be me)” - (page 1, line 1 - 6). He starts by establishing what he intends to talk about in the speech. By doing so he keeps the audience attentive as they now have some sort of expectation for the speech. Even though the speech touches on a somewhat serious topic, George Saunders manages to keep the speech from becoming dreary with his use of humor which is persistent throughout the speech. George Saunders talks about kindness and how you become kinder throughout your life. George Saunders talks about his view on kindness and how to become kinder with an ethical appeal. He talks about his own experience in his life and how all the things he has experienced have helped him become kinder with age and how the things he regrets the most in his life are “failures of kindness”. He has knowledge and experience that help him come across to the audience as a person who knows what he is talking about and that he is not

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