‘The Fringe Benefits of Failure and The Importance of Imagination was a speech delivered by J K Rowling at Harvard University during the graduation ceremony of the ‘Class of 2008’. In the speech, Rolling talked about two main issues; the benefits of failure and the importance of imagination basing all of them on her past experiences. In this paper, we will analyze the speech using the 4 – A method highlighting some of the rhetorical appeals that she used to connect with her audience better.
According to the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, rhetorical appeals can be divided into three; ethos, pathos, and logos (Introduction to Ethos, pathos, and logos). Ethos simply means that the orator can be viewed by his audience as a credible source of whatever information they are giving (Ethos). Pathos, on the other hand, refers to the ability of the speaker to ignite or rather inspire certain emotions in their audience. Finally, logos refers to the attempt of the speaker to influence and persuade the audience through logical ideas (William).
The first element of rhetorical appeals, ethos, plays a very important role in making sure that J K Rowling was deemed a credible source of the message that she was trying to pass to the audience during this speech. As mentioned earlier, her speech was centered on two main themes; the fringe benefits of failure and the importance of imagination. It comes out very clearly that J K Rolling had gone through certain major failures in her life. She begins by mentioning that her early marriage to her boyfriend back then ended in separation (Text of J K Rowling’s Speech). This communicates to the audience that she is well conversant with this type of failure and therefore, her advice and outlook on relationships is well informed. She then goes to talk about poverty which is deemed by many as the epitome of failure. According to Rolling, she was as poor as anyone can ever be in the UK without necessarily being homeless;
An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew (Text of J K Rowling’s Speech).
This gives the audience the idea and confirmation that the speaker knows exactly what she is talking about. Rolling also proves to the audience that she is a credible source when it comes to advocating for the importance of imagination. J K Rolling is a world-renowned writer especially from her series of books ‘Harry Potter” which were completely fictitious (J K Rowling). Therefore, the audience already knows the economic benefits of imagination.
Pathos is also very well entrenched in her speech. The first emotion she appeals to is humor. At the beginning of her speech, rolling talks about the fear, nausea, and anxiety that she went through when she was preparing to give this speech (Text of J K Rowling’s Speech). However, she twists it to humor when she says that the good thing about all of that is that it helped her lose weight. She further goes on to say that all she has to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banner and convince herself that she is at the largest Gryffindor union. The funny part of this sentence is the ‘Gryffindor union’ part which she picks up from her book Harry Porter. It is an intellectual joke anyone who has read the book would be conversant with. Rolling also taps into fear which is common to most graduates especially on their graduation day. In this stage of their lives, graduates are faced with the fear of the unknown. They do not know what lies ahead of them, how their lives are going to play out and in general, what life has in store for them. Most of them are afraid of failure and J K taps into this when she talks about how she failed right after finishing College. She was a poor single mother with no job. This is the worst fear of most female graduates. However, she goes on to illustrate the silver lining that comes with complete failure and motivates them that if they find themselves in the same situation, it does not mean that it is the end of the world. They can dust themselves up and build something out of themselves (Text of J K Rowling’s Speech).
From her speech, we can conclude that Rowling was very conversant with her audience. She knew who they were, their average and what they cared for. For example, she knew that she was going to address graduates and there fashioned her speech to fit them. She talks about the commencement speech they were given 21 years ago during her own graduation. She talks about her failures when it came to employment and marriage which her audience might soon face in when they are out of school. She also talks about the importance of following one’s dreams knowing very well its importance in shaping and leading the life of a young person who has just finished school (Text of JK Rowling’s Speech).
The general arrangement of her speech is also very commendable. She begins on a light note employing humor to ease the mood. She also highlights the main themes of her speech in order to let her audience know what she will be talking about. She then goes on to talk about her failures and how she managed to not only face them but rise above them. In the end, she ends up motivating her audience.
References
“Text of J K Rowling’s Speech.” The Harvard Gazette. Retrieved from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/06/text-of-j-k-rowling-speech/
Williams, George. “Ethos-Pathos-Logos-The-3-Rhetorical-Appeals.” Retrieved from http://georgehwilliams.pbworks.com/w/page/14266873/Ethos-Pathos-Logos-The-3-Rhetorical-Appeals
“J K Rowling, Author of Harry Potter Series.” JK Rowling. Retrieved from http://www.rowling.info/
“Ethos: What is it?” Retrieved from http://www.rowling.info/https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/Ethos_Handout01.pdf
“Introduction to Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.” Retrieved from https://kirkpatrickjuniorenglish.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/ethos-pathos-logos-definitions-and-worksheet.pdf
