What Is The Theme Of The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch

A last lecture gives a college professor the opportunity to state his “last words” about life and what he or she has learned throughout their life to an audience. Randy Pausch was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and later in life developed terminal pancreatic cancer. Randy Pausch’s last lecture, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, gave him the opportunity to state his “last words”, leaving a legacy and life lessons for millions of people to follow. Throughout the lecture, Pausch uses stories from his life to help the audience understand the lesson he is trying to convey. Although there are many lessons learned from this book, the main lessons are achieving specific childhood dreams, never give up, and how to

His sister was constantly telling his nephew to be careful in Uncle Randy’s car. Randy took a drink and spilled it all over the car seat of his new car. This story was teaching the reader that people are more important than materialistic goods. Throughout The Last Lecture, Pausch uses several literary devices to develop the book. An example of this would be quotes from the book, “When there is an elephant in the room, introduce him” (Pausch 23). The elephant symbolizes Pausch’s diagnosis and how it interferes with his everyday life. It affects how people view him, how people react to his diagnosis, and how it is a constant reminder of his diagnosis. With this quote, Randy is trying to teach the reader not to hide from the elephant, address it. The literary device that drove Pausch’s writing style is flashback. He uses flashbacks to present a lesson to the reader. The stories provide supporting evidence for the lesson Randy is trying to prove. Pausch also uses an optimistic tone throughout the book. The optimistic tone gives the reader hope for the lessons that he is trying to teach them. The Last Lecture is written in first-person point of view from the author, Randy Pausch. Through this point of view, the author can understand Randy’s experiences from his view, the way he felt, and how he would lead the book. Pausch’s writing style is different from other authors because as he is writing in the present, he uses flashbacks to drive his