ipl-logo

Donovan Livingston Commencement Speech

1058 Words5 Pages

In some aspects of life, society begs for perfection; It holds you to the highest of standards. This is what Donovan Livingston addressed in his commencement speech at Harvard University. In his speech Livingston stresses the importance of being yourself and quit the dreams of being perfect. Donovan Livingston uses robust phrases to educate and influence the public to not be scared to step up to the next level, to become the start of a movement, or to be the one that breaks social injustice. Donovan Livingston crafted is speech using a plethora of metaphors to appeal to the publics’ emotion and help them create a mental image inside their minds. He conveys this metaphor when he says, “At the core, none of us were meant to be common. We were born to be …show more content…

Another metaphor Livingston uses in his Commencement Speech would be, “I look each of my students in the eyes, and see the same light that aligned Orion’s Belt and the pyramids of Giza. I see the same twinkle That guided Harriet to freedom. I see them. Beneath their masks and mischief, Exists an authentic frustration; An enslavement to your standardized assessments.” This shows the many types of lights that influenced people in the past to be brave, strong, and courageous. The Orion’s belt was known for the positioning of the early civilizations on our planet and how it gave people hope, therefore naming it after the Greek hero, Orion. The pyramids of Giza are known to be the oldest world wonder, as well as it can be viewed as the “pyramid below the eye” behind the one-dollar bill. It was known to bring the light and hope into Egypt as it was viewed as the “god’s eye” as it watched over them and provided water to the Egyptian civilizations if they pleased him. These were just two examples of the three that conveyed the purpose of hope and following your dreams; In addition, Donovan also mentioned “enslavement to standardized assessments” to tell the public that tests aren’t the only

Show More
Related
804 Words | 4 Pages

Using this quote gave the readers a sense of the main idea, which was about racism. This helped to further improve the quality of Obama’s topic and support the points he was about to make. Then goes to give a brief information about Obama’s speech. He then began with his four rhetorical strategies, starting with allusion.

Read More
558 Words | 3 Pages

The Rhetorical Elements of Barack Obama’s Speech President Obama uses rhetorical appeals throughout his speech. These rhetorical appeals help prove that each an every student should try their best in school. President Obama stated in his 2009 “Address to America’s Schoolchildren” that each student must take responsibility for his or her own education. President Obama uses many examples of ethos, logos, and pathos in his speech. In Obama’s 2009 “Address to America’s Schoolchildren” he has examples of ethos.

Read More
771 Words | 4 Pages

During a funeral for Reverend Clementa Pinckney, a Charleston shooting victim, President Obama delivered an influential eulogy. This eulogy turned out to be so powerful that it traveled throughout the internet and became known as one of Obama’s best speeches from the duration of his presidency. The speech resonated so well with many citizens because of its relatable content and connections to passionate issues in today’s society. The delivery of the eulogy played a gigantic part in its effectiveness to Americans as well. President Obama’s eulogy contained beyond relatable content and various connections to the issues racking society’s bones today.

Read More
754 Words | 4 Pages

Freedom Is Ringing We are inspired by great speeches because of the way they are rhetorically crafted to make us feel. The best speeches are not the ones that are informational, it’s the ones that tug at our heartstrings. John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, Martin L. King ’s I Have a Dream Speech, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms State of the Union Address use a variety of literary devices in their speech to motivate and cajole their audiences to defend our liberties.

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

Billy Joel is a musician and he is giving the commencement speech at Berklee College of Music in 1993. Berklee College of Music is the largest contemporary music college in the world. Billy Joel is an amazing singer and songwriter so even though he did not attend this college, it is still an honor to be able to speak there. His commencement speech has plenty of rhetorical literary devices such as ethos, logos, pathos, parallelism, antithesis, as well allusions. There are other literary devices such as metaphors, rhetorical questions, and similes.

Read More
1196 Words | 5 Pages

In his commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005, David Foster Wallace was tasked with the responsibility of imparting some wisdom onto the graduating class. Wallace’s message to a room of full soon-to-be college graduates at the precipice of the of their impending true adulthood, he offers them a message that cuts through the mess and concisely delivers a message that many would ironically overlook, which is for the students to realize that at times, imperative life lessons are not only the ones that they cannot conceive or believe, but the ones that are obvious but hard to acknowledge let alone discuss. The lesson in this is that no matter how instinctive that cynicism is, it is imperative that people must try to more honest and open

Read More
443 Words | 2 Pages

Conforming to Solidarity The Twilight Zone episodes “Number 12 Looks Just Like You” and “Eye of the Beholder” emphasize conformity as a key element in the success of the modern-day societies. In detail, in “Number 12 Looks Just Like You” as adolescents turn into adults, they select a predisposed pattern from a category of people. Respectfully, in “Eye of the Beholder” Janet is forced to undergo procedures to reverse her natural beauty in order to appear ugly and disfigured as the rest of the populous appears.

Read More
1050 Words | 5 Pages

Kennedy’s Civil Rights Address, rhetorical appeals are strongly used to convey his purpose that there is a drastic need for a change in equality in America. Within the process of swaying his audience, Kennedy connects and emotionally involves his viewers through a fear factor. He relates to his audience and gains trustworthiness by expressing his morals and including himself in these issues. He consistently backs up his claims with facts and examples, which signifies the importance and seriousness of the presented problems. These appeals are used throughout Kennedy’s address to reiterate his argument that the system needs changing.

Read More
1070 Words | 5 Pages

The Unusual Message Reading the commencement speech “This is Water”, written and delivered by David Foster Wallace to students and their families at Kenyon College was nothing like what I was expecting it to be. I can imagine the listeners that were present were just as shocked as I was when they finally grasped the message he was presenting to them that day. Normally when someone delivers a commencement speech to students graduating, it's more along the lines of “be all that you can be” or “You can do it” with emphasis on the word “you.” No one really tells you to think of others first at that point in your lives. However, Wallace did just that.

Read More
478 Words | 2 Pages

Rhetorical Analysis Former Illinois State Senator and soon to be Forty-fourth president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, recounts what happened in the past to make America what is today and how he intends to maintain the ideas of America’s founding fathers throughout his term of presidency. His intended audience of the first inaugural address is the citizens of America and his purpose was to comfort them about the past and encourage the future of America. He creates a patriotic and empowering tone in order to appeal to pathos. His diction throughout the speech illustrates patriotism, allusions, and anaphoras. Obama opens his speech by discussing the views of our forebears and documents and how we have followed through with those views.

Read More
1763 Words | 8 Pages

David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech “This is Water” at Kenyon College is often thought of as one of the most influential speeches because it calls the graduates to observe the world around them through a different lens. However, he does not accomplish that by calling the graduates to action, but instead challenges them to use their education. He also appeals to the students’ emotions through his use of ethos, logos, and pathos. Although people mostly only remember the antidotes, it is the message associated with reoccurring emotions and literary devices throughout the speech that moves the reader into action. Wallace is able to captivate his audience and persuade them to view the world without themselves at the center through his tactful use of rhetoric.

Read More
762 Words | 4 Pages

The nature of conformity and individualism in Fahrenheit 451 is different compared to each other. Conformity is how everyone is in the novel while individualism is only shown outside of society. The true nature of conformity is that everyone is created equally while individualism shows what a real person is. In the novel, Montag was a character that was affected by conformity and individualism since he was once conformed in society, but then soon became an individual himself. Conformity and Individualism are polar opposites and that everyone should be unique in their own way.

Read More
884 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout his speech, Barack Obama’s use of metaphor allows the audience to make powerful connections and conclusions; therefore, persuading them to support his plans. While analyzing past presidential inaugurations, Obama compares peace and prosperity to the ocean and economic crisis to gathering clouds and raging storms stating: “Forty-four Americans have now taken the

Read More
735 Words | 3 Pages

In the 1960s the African Americans were freed, but did they really have all the rights they were promised? Racial conflicts were everywhere. Lyndon B. Johnson was current president and was trying to encourage congress to pass a bill called The Voting Rights Act. To influence the vote he gave the speech “We Shall Overcome.” In “We Shall Overcome” President Lyndon Johnson used ethos, pathos, logos, and other rhetorical devices such as allusions, repetition and appeals to authority to persuade congress to pass the act.

Read More
950 Words | 4 Pages

Obama’s use of repetition in his speech makes his praise of John Kerry more powerful and by using the same words in different contexts, he shows that his ideas are important and relevant to all people. For example, “It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire [...] the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant [...] the hope of a millworker’s son [...] the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name [...].” In this passage, the repetition of “the hope” applied to descriptions of different situations conveys the idea that everyone needs hope, and that America is a country built on hope. Obama also uses anaphora to drill certain ideas into the audience’s minds.

Read More

More about Donovan Livingston Commencement Speech

Related Topics

Open Document