George Saunders, gave a commencement speech to the graduating class at Syracuse University in 2013. The point of the speech is about the importance of kindness in everyday life. Saunders main audience is the graduating class at Syracuse. The speeches message was extremely important because Saunders made himself an example for the sake of the class’s futures. The wish of Saunders is that each person’s selfishness will diminish and they will grow in love. Overall the speech is effective due to Saunders attention grabbing humor and also his personalization with the audience. The effectiveness of the speech is caused mainly by a rhetorical approach that uses connections, evidence, and credibility. Saunders uses connections, evidence, and credibility to get one point across, which is the importance of kindness and love.
Saunders draws on the emotions of the audience while he starts his speech. Saunders opens the speech up complementing the class calling them shiny, energetic, new people with their best days ahead of them. Prior to that, he called himself an “ol fart” and told the class that his best years were behind him. First he is kind …show more content…
So what does George Saunders regret most in his life? He goes all the way back to 42 years ago in grade school. He tells a story of a girl who got teased and picked on in his class. Through the detailed description you could tell Saunders knew a lot about her for it to be 42 years ago. He even tells the audience that he didn’t ever say an unkind word to her and even mildly defended her. So why does he regret that most? It is because of the failures of kindness towards that girl. It is the fact that he only MILDLY defended her and didn’t come to her side when she was hurting. The evidence that Saunders honestly regrets his actions towards that girl, 42 years later, shows the audience how important it is to be kind and