Steve Jobs Commencement Speech Analysis

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:English

Document 1

Through this story, he shows his audience “How to live before you die”; many realize that they truly never live. By sharing his struggles through education, dropping out and still continuing with his desirable courses, the audience comes into terms with the fact that childhood choices mended the man he was now. Whenever difficult circumstances knocked him down, Steve never gave up. He persuades the graduating class to live their lives on their own terms regardless of the difficulties they face. It is the difficulties in life that determine the future of a person. He discusses the intention of his parents to offer him the education he deserved. Though they could not afford to educate him, they found him a family that would support his education, and all over a sudden, he drops out of college.

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His humor is depicted on the manner he says he wasted his parent’s savings. Seventeen months later, he narrates how he chose to go back to school. This story captures the emotions of the audience because they can relate to an underprivileged student trying to become successful. ” he loved what he was doing. He founded NeXT and Pixar which would later be bought by Apple. This phase also saw him get married and start a family, some accomplishment he would not have done, had he not been fired. He advises the graduates to find what they love as it is the only way they will do great work. Additionally, his rhetorical narration method captures the attention of those who have not yet found their soul in anything; he tells them never to settle but to keep looking.

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He decides to end his speech with one of his hardship childhood memory from the Whole Earth Catalog, which he calls his generational “bible”. He uses pathos from a memory of his childhood magazine, “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”, to relay his advice to the audience. By this, he describes how being curious and humble enables one to be passionate about life. The commencement speech by Steve Jobs at Stanford University is rich in rhetorical devices, which makes it effective and passionately executed. By use of pathos, ethos and logos appeal to the audience, Jobs successfully connects with the audience in a relaxed and humorous manner. Stay Foolish. ” Works Cited University, Stanford. "Text Of Steve Jobs' Commencement Address (2005)".  Stanford News, 2018, https://news.

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