Commencement Speech, Kenyon College

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The short story “The Lesson” by Tony Cade Bambara, and the essay “Commencement Speech, Kenyon College” by David Foster Wallace, convey that a person should be aware of their surrounding to develop the way that person thinks from that point on. In the story “The Lesson” you have a group of poor inner city kids who are taken on a day trip by a college educated older lady to a toy store that caters to the wealthy. In the “Commencement Speech, Kenyon College” the speaker talks to the graduating class about how their live will change now that they are hitting their adult lives where every day interactions will give them time to think. The authors help us understand this common theme by putting the characters in uncomfortable scenarios, telling the reader what the characters are thinking, and expressing how the situation should make the person change the way they think.
In both “The lesson” and “Commencement speech, Kenyon College” the characters were put in situations where they had to change the way they were thinking from that point on. In the story “The lesson” Sylvia and some neighborhood friends get taken on a day trip to FAO Schwartz by Miss Moore. When they arrive at …show more content…
In “The Lesson” the underprivileged kids were taken out of their comfort zone by being taken to a rich toy which in return changed the way they thought at them some were annoyed of the lesson they learned that day and others motivated to the way they can change. In the “Commencement Speech, Kenyon College” the speaker gave the graduates advice on how they should think of life after graduation. Even though one was a short story and the other a speech they both had the same theme about someone being aware of their surroundings to the point where it changes the way they think from that point

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Wallace gave the commencement speech to the Kenyon College graduating class of 2005, he provided an outstanding articulation that some would say laid the foundation for the audience to become vividly aware of their surroundings in a non-superficial way; and how doing so can improve one’s outlook on life dramatically, in other words, he tells them, let go of their natural default settings and live life for today. When David Foster Wallace gave the commencement speech to the Kenyon College, graduating…

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