Saunders Commencement Speech By George Saunders

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In Saunders’ commencement speech he tells a story of a young girl that moved to his neighborhood named Ellen. Ellen was always teased for chewing on her hair when she became nervous. Ellen was always asked “does your hair taste good?” (“George Saunders”) and he would always try to defend her. Saunders believes that this girl caused him to have failed in kindness. For someone to gain kindness in his opinion was to “do well in school so we can get a good job” (“George Saunders”). He wishes for life not to be handed to us like those in the upper class, he wishes for us to work for it. His stories of Ellen relate more to Callie than Maria, who was part of the upper class and who went to pet the puppy and immediately trued to wash her hands, but