Morrison's 'Nobel Lecture' and
Wallace's 'This Is Water' are both speeches addressed in front of a crowd
considered to be prestigious. Both speeches contain some personal aspects of
both authors. Morrison, an African American woman who struggled with racism and
sexism in her early life, states “Sexist language, racist language, theistic
language – all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do
not permit new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.” Wallace,
writer who struggled with depression and committed suicide in 2008, includes
in his speech “The capital-T Truth is about life before death. It is about
making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head.”
Morrison addresses in her speech
how culture is fragile and can be easily destroyed or changed by other cultures.
She does this by explaining how language can be misused or altered over
countless generations. In her speech Morrison illustrates a scenario where a
blind old woman is confronted by a younger generation of children aimed at
challenging her wisdom by asking her to describe what she cannot see. To the
blind woman language is what she hears; to the young boys language is what you
see. When the boys confronted the woman in such a manner that was meant to oppress
her by exploiting her disability, they attempted to destroy what she knew about
the outside world. This culture clash was symbolic due to its reoccurring appearance
in modern day society.
Wallace stresses in his speech the
concept of awareness. By becoming aware of their surroundings humans can rewire
their tendency to be self-centered. “The really important kind of freedom
involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able
truly to care about other people to sacrifice for them…” Wallace states that no
one is free of selfishness, but we as humans can change our ego-centric ways by
acknowledging that there are other people going through similar or more
difficult situations.
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