David Foster Wallace's "This is
Water" and Toni Morrison's Nobel Lecture both begin with a story, a
parable that begins ambiguous to the audience but is later referenced and
finally unraveled towards the end of the speech. Both aim to create an
awareness, but the awareness comes from different perspectives that reflect the
ages of the author's intended audience. As such, the examples presented and the
language used have a varying level of maturity through the speeches to connect
with said audiences.
In the case of "This is
Water", the perspective that is established is the side of young fish,
although that is not revealed until later in the speech. The purpose of the
young fish is to expose the nonexistent awareness of one's surroundings and the
idea that self-mindedness is an innate instinct. By presenting examples from everyday life like
being stuck in traffic or waiting in long lines at grocery stores, as well
using simple colloquial language, the
intended audience of young, liberal arts graduates is delivered wholeheartedly
into the resolution - being aware and caring of the fellow man, rather than
epitomising the "rat race".
On the other hand, Morrison's Nobel
Lecture uses the young to dive into the mind of the old, and the connotation of
wisdom associated. Through her long, intellectual, and complex sentences, her
interpretation comparing the bird to language, is slowly and methodically
painted on the canvas that is her parable. But rather than using multiple
examples as Wallace does, Morrison continually uses the extended metaphor of
the wise old from the parable.
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