An analysis of William Kamkwamba 's speech
William Kamkwamba 's speech has an obvious moral: if you have faith in yourself, you can achieve anything you put your mind to. To attain this moral, he uses a set of language features and literary devices that I will comment on in this analysis.
"Two years ago, I was a young man who stood frightened like a deer caught in the headlights of a car on stage trying to tell the audience my special story". Kamkwamba begins by using a simile. He creates a mental image that is not difficult for us to form, and by comparing himself to a petrified deer, he stresses how terribly anxious and caught off guard he felt at that moment.
His introduction is a backwards glance towards his situation two years before he held this speech. When he looks back and ponders over it, what he remembers is his nervousness and his inability to express himself in the way he had wanted to. He uses this
…show more content…
In this text, I am going to decode what each of them stand for and explain which of the ideas I find more important.
Kamkwamba 's idea is based on individualism and self-reliance. His belief is that anyone, regardless of their background, can decide their own future if they work hard and believe in themselves. Kamkwamba comes from the state Malawi in Africa. He has a background with few privileges, and yet managed to work his way out of extreme hunger and poverty.
Ban Ki-moon, former United Nations Secretary General, looks at the bigger picture: How can we achieve an egalitarian society where everyone has the same opportunities? His idea is that in order for everyone to have the same opportunities, we also need to have the same starting point. We need to make sure that all people can go to school, which then will lead to a significant decrease in poverty and hunger, and will result in all potential being