George Saunders
In this portion of Saunders’ speech he gave at Syracuse
University he talks about kindness. In this meaningful speech he employs
multiple techniques in order to show his voice as a writer and speaker. Some of
these techniques are narrative
techniques, exhibition of perceptivity, and offering of surprising information and
observations.
In his
speech and in the video that goes along with the kindness portion, Saunders
uses narrative techniques to help
deliver his message and voice. He does this in three ways, movement from
beginning to end, dialogue, and imagery. The movement in the speech is a little
abstract because the same supporting idea travels with the speech however he
moves his focus from “Ellen” to how people should treat others in general. He
uses dialogue such as,” Your hair taste good?” to help emphasize the bullying
and rejection that Ellen had to face in his school and neighborhood. Finally he
uses Imagery do describe how he saw Ellen, with her old lady glasses or her
facial expression when she was bullied. His descriptions help us see in our
mind what he saw when he was in school and therefore help us connect.
The
next technique Saunders uses is his exhibition
of perceptivity. He uses this when he talks about how people should treat
others. He explains that simply being nice to someone is not enough but you
should make sure others are kind to that person as well and if that person
feels alone or rejected you should attempt to change that and make them feel
like they belong. This is an example of his perceptivity because the average
person would probably not think about being king in the way that Saunders does.
This perceptivity adds to his voice by shoeing that he is a deep thinker with
string opinions that he is not afraid to argue for.
The
final technique that Saunders employs in order to create his voice is his offering of surprising information and observations.
Throughout his speech Saunders shows us many things he notices and remembers
about Ellen. Some of his observations include seeing her standing alone in her
yard afraid to leave or his feeling of regret even 40 years later, he also
includes a twist when Ellen simply moves away instead of perhaps finding
friends or acceptance of some sort. This helps us see an observant side of
Saunders as well as showing us a compassionate and sympathetic side from his
regret all of which add a sense of wisdom to his overall voice as a writer.
I liked how you talked about the narrative techniques that he used in his speech. I liked the movement in his speech because he goes from telling the story about Ellen to talking about the inferred theme. I think he transitions between the two when he says, "Now, why do I regret that? Why, 42 years later, am I still thinking about it?" This provide a smooth transition between the story and the theme. He goes on to explain how we should be kinder to one another. Do you think his story does a good job of supporting his theme?
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