Kathleen Rowling's Speech Persuasive Essay

839 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Character analysis harry potter and the sorcerers stone essay

Joanne Kathleen Rowling is a world-known British author, and she is best known for her ”Harry Potter” series. Rowling is also one of the wealthiest women. In Harry Potter, she expresses the goodness in people, and her imagination gives Harry Potter the possibility of achieving something, even though his life is tough. That is also what Rowling wants the graduates to know, in her speech ““The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”, at Harvard University in 2008. In Rowling’s commencement speech, she mentions that instead of going down the financial success path, the students from Harvard should choose to go down of their personal success and follow what they are truly passionate about. She did this by herself and succeeded, but it started out with poverty and failure. Though she …show more content…

This is a quote that Rowling mentions in her speech. She uses the audiences’ emotions and imaginations to make them feel for the ones who are in pain and are suffering. The purpose of the pathos here is to persuade the audience to say that the graduates have to speak for the people who cannot speak for themselves. Rowling’s speech is persuasive. She uses a lot of her own personal views and opinions, such as the benefits of failure and the crucial importance of imagination. These views and opinions show the audience how they need to act in the real world. The speech is also an entertaining speech, because of the humour used, and because of the dramatized anecdote about her life and how she got through a hard time (L51-55). By using this strategy of the anecdote, she has been able to completely seduce and hook her listeners. Rowling’s speech is very formal, for an example: “I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination”. She uses this kind of language because it is appropriate to talk formally in front of the Ivy League (top elite) in

Show More
Related

  • Leaving The Iron Lung Summary

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    When Marie tries to ask the protagonist to take a walk, this action shows that she is trying to achieve Pauline’s dream by getting her outside of the house. Therefore, she could finally feel the true meaning of freedom. Nevertheless, Pauline’s mother’s response demonstrates that she wants her daughter’s safety more than anything. The mother tries to keep Pauline away from the danger, so the protagonist can at last have a healthier life. However, Agathe’s reply shows that her mother is willing to sacrifice Pauline’s dream to keep her secure. Therefore, the author uses contrasting characters to mention that safety is more valuable. Furthermore, the protagonist starts to describe Tante Marie and reveals that she always has her hair “around her shoulder” (85). When Pauline describes Marie, Pauline shows how her Tante is open-minded. In fact, Marie helps Pauline to let go of her limitations and to get a taste of her dream. Therefore, Marie always wants Pauline to go outside and play hockey or even to take a walk. These actions that Pauline’s Tante takes show how she is determinate to make Pauline’s dream come true. Thus, the author

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Malala Yousafzai

    423 Words  | 1 Pages

    For example, Yousafzai speaks about girls and boys education because "... they are suffering the most" (Eleven). Using the word "suffering" draws emotion from the listeners or readers. This is using pathos because it is evoking emotion. In addition, Yousafzai shows that “... innocent and poor children are victims of child labor,” (Ten) instead of getting an education. Saying that the children are innocent and poor brings out emotion, evoking pathos. This adds to her claim by making education sound even more important. Pathos is used to evoke emotion from the audience about her claim.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Still Separate Still Unequal

    1199 Words  | 3 Pages

    For example, the emotion is felt when Kozol speaks to a student from a New York, Bronx high school, “Think of it this way,” said a sixteen-year-old girl. “If people in New York woke up one day and learned that we were gone…how would they feel? Then when asking how she thought the people of New York would feel she replied, “I think they’d be relieved” (Kozol 205). By mentioning the thoughts and emotions of individuals involved with the issues of school system segregation and inequality his reader cannot help but develop a feeling of empathy for children that feel as if no one cares about them and their issue. Kozol also uses pathos effectively by reading letters to his reader he received from young elementary school children that are not afforded the same amenities as other children in wealthier school systems, amenities such as toilet paper or the appropriate amount of restrooms. Which causes students to hold the urge to relieve themselves out of fear of being late for class (Kozol 214). With the proper use of pathos, Kozol places the reader in the same situation and assistances the reader with an understanding of his reason for conveying a concern to help children in this unfortunate situation. Another example of Pathos is when he speaks of the letters that came from third-grade children asking for help with getting them better things. He mentions a letter that had the most affected on him that came from a girl named Elizabeth, “It is not fair that other kids have a garden and new things. But we don’t have that.” (Kozol 206). This example being only one example of the few things mentioned in the letter. The tone of the little girl from when Kozol reads gives a pitiful and sad feeling. By stating this, it acts on the reader’s emotional state which creates a sense of wanting to resolve the problem of

    Read More

  • Valedictoriang Rhetorical Analysis

    478 Words  | 1 Pages

    This essay relies more on pathos because she shows her emotions towards the students who have suffered because of

    Read More

  • The Book Thief Compare And Contrast

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    She loves how words can fill her up, but then she also realizes that words can be ugly things, especially in the way Hitler can use words to encourage the German people to carry out horrific violence and cause so much suffering. She

    Read More

  • Anne Frank Remembered: Review

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    In order to further discuss her main points and views, a summary of her story

    Read More

  • Harry Potter Argumentative Essay

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the first segment of the series was released in 1997, Harry Potter has been challenged by churches and parents due to the practicing of magic by children found within the books. The books have been removed from school shelves, discouraged by churches, and censored by parents. It is claimed that Harry Potter is devilish, satanic, and encourages children to practice the occult, damaging their religious views (LaFond). Therefore, many parents keep their children from reading the book series. Yet, Harry Potter has been such a positive influence on my so many lives. Evident through the movies, theme parks, stores, and much more, J.K. Rowling’s series has been an overwhelming success for many reasons (“Because it’s his…”). In order to encourage

    Read More

  • Ellen Degeneres´ Commencement Speech in Tulane University, 2009

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ellen is successful and is encouraging to the students, so that they can become the same or greater. She repeats this a few times throughout this speech. The speech is about being the person you want to be, no matter what hardships that you may face in life. The speech is mainly directed towards her emotional reality.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of CS Lewis's Works and JK Rowling's Works

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    The work of C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling is of grave vital on the grounds that their work portrays actuality as well as adds to it. Yes, their work is not just a portrayal of actuality; it is somewhat a quality expansion. Their meeting expectations are depictions of the reasoning examples and social standards pervasive commonly. They are a delineation of the diverse features of regular man's existence. Their works serves as a something worth mulling over and a tonic for creative energy and innovativeness. Lying open a single person to great artistic lives up to expectations, is proportional to giving him/her the finest of instructive chances.

    Read More

  • Alice Munro's Boys and Girls

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the story there are several aspects of the Protagonist’s character that play a major role in the shaping of her future. During her childhood she often demonstrates a sense of fear when she is sent to her bedroom. “We were afraid of the inside, the room were we slept (pg. 549).” She is intimidated by her personal space because she does not have control over it. Later, she gains control by adding lace to her side of the room; symbolically adding personality to herself and slipping into womanhood. When she felt uncomfortable she exercised her imagination, to psychologically regain control over the confusion in her life. Her subconscious effort to control confusing times were carried on to her later years as she was constantly put in difficult situations, which helped her to adjust quickly to change during adulthood. The dreams she created changed when she began to place emphasis on her appearance-that which she could control, other than past dreams of heroism that seemed so distant from reality. The Protagonist filled her childhood with much pride and maintained a consistent focused upon the activities that filled her childhood. She relished working at the side of her father, taking immense pride in every aspect of her assigned duties. She proclaimed, “I worked willingly under his eyes, and with a feeling of pride (pg. 551)” Once after her father introduced her to a feed sales man as “my new hired man (pg. 551),” the Protagonist was flooded with pride as she “turned away and raked furiously, red in the face with pleasure (pg. 551).” In her later years her pride helped her to assemble strong self-confidence she used in her years of growing. Passion and depth were characteristics that impacted her future as a woman. Her passion and depth was revealed early on in the story ...

    Read More

  • The Theme of Racism in To Kill a Mockingbird

    2121 Words  | 5 Pages

    Belcher, C. and Stephenson, B. H. (2011). Teaching Harry Potter: The Power of Imagination in

    Read More

  • Harry Potter Satire

    1430 Words  | 3 Pages

    Didn't most eminent Victorian novelists fight just as greedily for their profits, become, in several cases, international celebrities, and see their better cliffhangers and denouements stimulate the nation into moments of collective delirium? But as her critics point out, Rowling is no Dickens. That the welfare of Harry Potter should, each year, become a question of national importance has only deepened a suspicion, in some quarters, that Rowling's writing is not merely mediocre but contaminated by her participation in a crass celebrity culture. In 2000, Harold Bloom despaired for her readers.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of J. K. Rowling's Speech

    1507 Words  | 4 Pages

    J.K. Rowling is famous all over the world for her Harry Potter book series. In 2008, she was asked to be Harvard’s commencement speaker. She had two main messages to tell the graduating class. The first message was about how failure is an important. She also talked about how people always need to use their imagination in life.

    Read More

  • J.K. Rowling Proves Woman Don't Need a Man to Survive

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    Not only has J.K. Rowling influenced many women around the world, but she also has impacted many peoples’ lives. J.K. Rowling was a single mother trying to support her only daughter. She proved to single women that she doesn’t need a man to survive. J.K. Rowling shows females that they are just as capable as men. An editor of Good Housekeeping said “Everyone felt J.K. Rowling was the one with the most influence across the widest audience. As a single parent who managed to cope and pull herself out of poverty and create a massive entertainment empire on the way, she is very inspiring” (Nicholson). Rowling shows women that they don’t have to have super-model looks, or a wonderful voice to be noticed by society; they don’t need that to be an inspiration to people of all ages. Those important words to keep in mind underscore one of J.K. Rowling’s characters sayings, “Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure” (Rowling). Rowling believes that people need to use their brains and a hop in their step to make it in this world. Rowling is such an inspiration for people everywhere, not only women- “Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve” (Rowling). In 2010, J.K. Rowling was voted Britain’s most influential woman. She topped the list of over 100 women who have the most influence in the lives of the Briti...

    Read More

  • The Story of J.K. Rowling

    2098 Words  | 5 Pages

    Creator of the most famous and best loved character in contemporary fiction, J.K Rowling is also the author of her own escape from a depressing existence on the verge of destitution. On the one hand, there is J.K Rowling who wrote the ‘Harry Potter’ novels, ‘The Casual Vacancy’ and ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’; the literary phenomenon of the nineties and present day. On the other, there is Joanne Rowling (the ‘J.K’ was her agent’s marketing notch), a dreamy, rather shy, but passionate woman whose brilliance in translating her dreams into prose changed her life. In January 1994, she was broke and jobless, struggling to bring up a young child in a small rented flat in Edinburgh. Just six years later, with her first book transformed into a major Hollywood film, she was reportedly worth £65 million (Smith 2001).

    Read More

More about Kathleen Rowling's Speech Persuasive Essay

Open Document