Themes Of The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture (2008) written by Randy Pausch gives a brief history of his experiences from the last couple of years of his life. Randy Pausch who was a 47-year-old male computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon who had moved from Pittsburg to Southeastern Virginia in his later years, talks about his wife, Jai, and his three children, Dylan, Logan, and Chloe and the trials they had faced as a family while he became sick with cancer. Pausch throughout the book references his fight with pancreatic cancer and the series of events in The Last Lecture before he perished. In Pausch’s book he is concluding his career with a last lecture people will remember him by and something his children will be able to hear when they grow older, however he also states “about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, and of seizing the moment” (Jacket Cover) which means his audience is anyone who wants to succeed, help others, and his family.

Pausch then goes into his youth. He tells about how he had one older sister, Tammy, a niece Laura, and a nephew, Chris. Pausch throughout the book has many major themes. During the period where he was talking about his childhood he made it clear to dream big and reach for the stars. In the book, he informs the readers about a time when he asked his parents if he could paint on the walls in his room. His parents encouraged imagination. They told him that he could paint on the walls. With now the ability to paint on the walls in his room he could extend his imagination and expand it to new heights. Pausch then began to talk about what he was going to put on his walls mentioning the quadratic formula, snow white’s mirror, chess pieces, and rocket ships. Pausch imagination is one of the things that begins to create a basis for his book by building on imagination and