Comparing J. K. Rowling And David Foster Wallace
Comparison Essay
We have always been told or somehow educated to be ourselves and not to be distracted by others, but for J.K Rowling and David Foster Wallace, they both encourage college graduates to think independently yet broadly.
J.K. Rowling Starts her speech with a humor -“win-win situation” saying that preparing this lecture helps her lose weight and the way she releases her pressure is to regard Harvard as “Gryffndor”-- one of the Hogwarts Schools of Wizardry from her masterpiece “Harry Potter”. Following the “Gryffindor” joke，Rowing mentions her own graduation memory. She does not remember a single word that the famous British philosopher gave on her commencement so Rowling is not afraid of accidentally turning any student from Lawyer, politician, or businessperson to a gay wizard. J.K. Rowling well actives the lecture atmosphere by using “Gryffindor” as a metaphor of Harvard to connect her speech and her best-known novel together and makes fun of graduates …show more content…
that they would not be misguided by her lecture afterwards since they might not even remember as she does. After the entertaining opening-grab, Rowling points out the two themes of her speech—the benefits of failure and the importance of imagination based on what she would like to know at age of 21.
To expound the first them, Rowling uses her own past dilemma -- striking between her own will and her parents` expectation when declaring her college major. Her parents hoped that she would take a vocational career to prevent poverty. That leads to the theme of which the most she feared then was not poverty instead was failure. She lists couple failures of herself. e.g. failed marriage, single mom, unemployed. Then she states that the two benefits of failure helped her become who she is. First, She addresses that “Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed truly belonged.” i.e. failure “stripes away of the inessential” and helps people eliminate the false and retain the true. The second benefit is that “ failure gives her an inner security.” It could be interpreted as only after having experienced failure, can we spend time and energy on things we really enjoy without any guilty, hesitation, or uncertainty.
After discussing the benefits of failure, Rowling starts her second theme by redefining the meaning of imagination. It does not merely explain as simple envision to viewing pictures but as the capacity to think from others` perspectives and to empathize others` life that we have never lived through. Rowling’s experience as working with persecuted Africans helps her prove the importance of imagination. Imagination leads to a further action-to raise our voice on behalf of those who are powerless, to imagine ourselves into the lives of those who do not have advantages and then make a change of their circumstances.
At last, Rowling emphasizes the significance of friendship by giving an entertaining example that her friends do not sue her even though she takes their names for Death Eaters. Again, her humor wins a round of applause.
Same as Rowling as an attention grabber, David Foster Wallace starts his commencement address by telling a story about “fish never think about water” to lead to his point that liberal Art degree helps students develop the skill of independent thinking. Followed by another example after “fish”, Foster Wallace tells another story of a Catholic and an atheist`s holding different religious point of view to address that people think distinctly due to their various backgrounds. Then he provides a total wrong and extreme concept of egocentrism followed by an angry grocery-shopping example to prove we get mad over nothing only from our perspectives.
The author uses exaggerated and easy style of writing to show the audience that the idea of “I believe I am the center of the universe” makes absolutely no sense since we live in an equal and a diverse society.
It seems funny because the obvious truth between the unaware relationship of the living and our own views of the world cannot be dismissed. We tend to create our own set of beliefs also practice and demand from others. At the end, Foster Wallace points out that there is no required default setting or personal sets of beliefs we must adhere to, only making choice to think the way we want to think and become whom we want to become. However, we have to pay for what we worship. He comes up with two kinds of worship: the worship of money, power or self-tiny-skull-sized Kingdom and the worship of awareness, discipline and being able to care about other people. For Foster Wallace, the worship of external subject itself and imprison our own thoughts can never free our happiness from endless
fetters.
Both Rowling and Foster Wallace`s lectures hit the will of the most students. They give sincere and useful advice using concise and comprehensive language as elders to prepare college graduates entering into adult world. Rowling`s “imagination” and Foster Wallace`s “adjusting natural default setting” share the same idea: focus beyond our little self and expand our insight to empathize others. Another common idea is that Rowling`s “benefits from failure” and Foster Wallace`s “worship of inner freedom” both express the concept of being faithful to the innermost feeling. There is also an apparent different between two essays. Rowling at the end indicates to raise the voice on behalf of the vulnerable and make a change for them after putting ourselves in their shoes. However, Foster Wallace concentrates most on “think” such as what should we think, how do we change our default setting, and the consequence of worshiping different ideas.
After reading both essays, I realize there are two only steps for college graduates to stick to. First to search the thing that we are truly willing to worship. It needs effort to look back to our peaceful simple heart in this fickleness world. Second is to adhere to our core value that discovered from our inside. The searching process could be long and confusing, even though few people luckily jump out of their limited minds and finally find out what they really enjoy，the next step- adhering to the favorite needs persistent efforts and total ignorance of outside distractions. How many people had rushed through lives and buried themselves into majorities, while spending their precious time on this planet accustoming to the noise of the confusing, confusing about their own repressed feelings, confusing about their own mediocre life – and then wonder where did the life go?
Works Cited
J.K. Rowling. “The Fringe Benefits of Faliure, and the importance of Imagination.” Harvard Magzine. June 2008. N.P. 23. October. 2014.
David Foster Wallace “Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address-May 21.2005”
We have always been told or somehow educated to be ourselves and not to be distracted by others, but for J.K Rowling and David Foster Wallace, they both encourage college graduates to think independently yet broadly.
J.K. Rowling Starts her speech with a humor -“win-win situation” saying that preparing this lecture helps her lose weight and the way she releases her pressure is to regard Harvard as “Gryffndor”-- one of the Hogwarts Schools of Wizardry from her masterpiece “Harry Potter”. Following the “Gryffindor” joke，Rowing mentions her own graduation memory. She does not remember a single word that the famous British philosopher gave on her commencement so Rowling is not afraid of accidentally turning any student from Lawyer, politician, or businessperson to a gay wizard. J.K. Rowling well actives the lecture atmosphere by using “Gryffindor” as a metaphor of Harvard to connect her speech and her best-known novel together and makes fun of graduates …show more content…
that they would not be misguided by her lecture afterwards since they might not even remember as she does. After the entertaining opening-grab, Rowling points out the two themes of her speech—the benefits of failure and the importance of imagination based on what she would like to know at age of 21.
To expound the first them, Rowling uses her own past dilemma -- striking between her own will and her parents` expectation when declaring her college major. Her parents hoped that she would take a vocational career to prevent poverty. That leads to the theme of which the most she feared then was not poverty instead was failure. She lists couple failures of herself. e.g. failed marriage, single mom, unemployed. Then she states that the two benefits of failure helped her become who she is. First, She addresses that “Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed truly belonged.” i.e. failure “stripes away of the inessential” and helps people eliminate the false and retain the true. The second benefit is that “ failure gives her an inner security.” It could be interpreted as only after having experienced failure, can we spend time and energy on things we really enjoy without any guilty, hesitation, or uncertainty.
After discussing the benefits of failure, Rowling starts her second theme by redefining the meaning of imagination. It does not merely explain as simple envision to viewing pictures but as the capacity to think from others` perspectives and to empathize others` life that we have never lived through. Rowling’s experience as working with persecuted Africans helps her prove the importance of imagination. Imagination leads to a further action-to raise our voice on behalf of those who are powerless, to imagine ourselves into the lives of those who do not have advantages and then make a change of their circumstances.
At last, Rowling emphasizes the significance of friendship by giving an entertaining example that her friends do not sue her even though she takes their names for Death Eaters. Again, her humor wins a round of applause.
Same as Rowling as an attention grabber, David Foster Wallace starts his commencement address by telling a story about “fish never think about water” to lead to his point that liberal Art degree helps students develop the skill of independent thinking. Followed by another example after “fish”, Foster Wallace tells another story of a Catholic and an atheist`s holding different religious point of view to address that people think distinctly due to their various backgrounds. Then he provides a total wrong and extreme concept of egocentrism followed by an angry grocery-shopping example to prove we get mad over nothing only from our perspectives.
The author uses exaggerated and easy style of writing to show the audience that the idea of “I believe I am the center of the universe” makes absolutely no sense since we live in an equal and a diverse society.
It seems funny because the obvious truth between the unaware relationship of the living and our own views of the world cannot be dismissed. We tend to create our own set of beliefs also practice and demand from others. At the end, Foster Wallace points out that there is no required default setting or personal sets of beliefs we must adhere to, only making choice to think the way we want to think and become whom we want to become. However, we have to pay for what we worship. He comes up with two kinds of worship: the worship of money, power or self-tiny-skull-sized Kingdom and the worship of awareness, discipline and being able to care about other people. For Foster Wallace, the worship of external subject itself and imprison our own thoughts can never free our happiness from endless
fetters.
Both Rowling and Foster Wallace`s lectures hit the will of the most students. They give sincere and useful advice using concise and comprehensive language as elders to prepare college graduates entering into adult world. Rowling`s “imagination” and Foster Wallace`s “adjusting natural default setting” share the same idea: focus beyond our little self and expand our insight to empathize others. Another common idea is that Rowling`s “benefits from failure” and Foster Wallace`s “worship of inner freedom” both express the concept of being faithful to the innermost feeling. There is also an apparent different between two essays. Rowling at the end indicates to raise the voice on behalf of the vulnerable and make a change for them after putting ourselves in their shoes. However, Foster Wallace concentrates most on “think” such as what should we think, how do we change our default setting, and the consequence of worshiping different ideas.
After reading both essays, I realize there are two only steps for college graduates to stick to. First to search the thing that we are truly willing to worship. It needs effort to look back to our peaceful simple heart in this fickleness world. Second is to adhere to our core value that discovered from our inside. The searching process could be long and confusing, even though few people luckily jump out of their limited minds and finally find out what they really enjoy，the next step- adhering to the favorite needs persistent efforts and total ignorance of outside distractions. How many people had rushed through lives and buried themselves into majorities, while spending their precious time on this planet accustoming to the noise of the confusing, confusing about their own repressed feelings, confusing about their own mediocre life – and then wonder where did the life go?
Works Cited
J.K. Rowling. “The Fringe Benefits of Faliure, and the importance of Imagination.” Harvard Magzine. June 2008. N.P. 23. October. 2014.
David Foster Wallace “Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address-May 21.2005”