Rhetorical Analysis Of Steve Jobs Commencement Speech

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During the June 2005 Stanford University graduation Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of apple and pixar, in only “jeans and sandals under his black robe” delivered his famous commencement speech (“Steve Jobs’ to 2005 graduates,” 2005). This speech drove into graduates exactly how short life is to not follow your dreams and do what you love to do before their inevitable death. As a reputable innovator and advocate for education who experience a near death situation after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the year prior, Jobs served as the perfect keynote speaker to emphasize how life can simply slip away at any moment and highlight the importance of living a life you love (Gallo, 2011, pg. 2).
Over 23,000 people were in attendance at the
Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation”, that had the audience laughing in their stiff chairs (Stanford, 2008). While the audience may have reciprocated accordingly during this starting humor, the same could not be said throughout the rest of the speech. Humor effectively used can liven up and gain the audience approval, however poorly executed jokes may turn the audience away, causing some awkward moments. Jobs included several punchlines through the speech that were setup to be comedic relief from a serious subject. However with no pause before or after, and no change in vocal intonation - keeping everything monotone - the joke’s where not received by the audience. These ‘jokes’ such as “I didn’t even know what a Pancreas was,” may have not even been jokes, but a way for Jobs to express just how out of his element he was when speaking about his near death. Still reiterating my previous point, whether it was a joke or a access to the inside of Jobs thinking, the lack of tone makes this hard to say. There was an improvement as the speech became more somber and serious, with Jobs speaking out about the topic of death, the audience death. This broke “the first rule of contemporary American culture- never talk about death”, attract the audience attention, having them shift nervously in their seats (Naughton, 2011). This coupled with an improved use of timing, enabled his horrid humor to be received. At the very minimum Jobs deserves a pat on the back for staying professional as expected, not stumbling over silent pauses or floundering with the follow up, as well as employing humor as a good method to reach the specific

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