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Christian Scalf
Professor Skutar
Essay #2 First draft
02/11/2012
Rhetorical Analysis of J. K. Rowling’s Harvard 2008 Commencement Speech
In June of 2008 (posted on TedTalks on January 2010), best-selling author J. K. Rowling
delivered the commencement speech to the graduating class of Harvard University. A
commencement speech is a speech given at a graduation, most generally by someone of note.
Harvard University is one of the oldest, most famous, and most prestigious universities in the
country and, quite possibly, the world. Commonly thought of the smartest students of America,
Harvard needs a prestigious commencement speaker. J. K. Rowling’s reputation precedes her,
being the first author to become a billionaire from writing. As a writer, a professional writer that
has become the very first billionaire writer, the pressure is on her to be memorable and articulate.
A commencement speech has some basic (loose) guidelines: provide inspiration, provide
perspectives, connect with the audience, and tell jokes. J. K. Rowling delivers this speech very
well rhetorically (as well as content, though I will not discuss this in this essay) by following the
(albeit loose) guidelines.
The fact that the speaker is J. K. Rowling had a significant effect on the rhetoric. J. K.
Rowling is renowned for her writing, she is a writer, and as a writer the expectations are higher.
Her words were educated and sophisticated, and as a college graduate (her having had to sit
through the speech delivered at her own graduation) she understands exactly what the people she
is addressing (through not the whole audience that composes of the graduates their family and
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friends, the dean, and the faculty and staff). She talks about her own experience in their seats
“Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my
mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished
British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me
enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she
said.”(Rowling). She knows how to approach what her point and what content is appropriate and
relevant for the audience. As a past audience member to the genre, she has a better grip on what
the audience cares about. “I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation,
and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that have expired between that day and
this.” (Rowling). She has sat in their seat, has felt the excitement of graduating, but also the fear
that comes with that. She knows what to say and how to approach the audience effectively.
Consequently, the audience has a substantial effect on the rhetoric. She acknowledges her
audience and who they are: “I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted
and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never
yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that
everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment. However, the
fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with
failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed,
your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person’s idea of success, so high
have you already flown.” (Rowling), which shows that she has put thought into what is about to
say and the relevance to them. In the same way, the purpose of the speech is vital. She is giving
the commencement speech for a reason, the reason why there are commencement speeches, to
help guide a graduating class with words of wisdom from someone “successful” (i.e. politican,
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CEO, author, etc.). And while she jokes with them and makes a connection, the setting is formal:
they are at a ceremony for an Ivy league school, her speech pattern and clothing are formal, the
graduates are in caps and gowns, the parents are dressed-up, and there are note-worthy people
there (Ted talks).
Rowling starts her speech with stating her intentions “On this wonderful day when we are
gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the
benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I
want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.” (Rowling) and backs them up with personal
experiences and quotes. She first talks about her “exceptionally short-lived marriage” that left
her “jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being
homeless” and then connects it to her first point with: “Simply because failure meant a stripping
away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was,
and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really
succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one
arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I
was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big
idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” (Rowling).
She talks about her second point by starting out explaining her position at the African research
department at Amnesty International’s headquarters in London: “Every day, I saw more evidence
about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans, to gain or maintain power. I began
to have nightmares, literal nightmares, about some of the things I saw, heard, and read. And yet I
also learned more about human goodness at Amnesty International than I had ever known
before.” (Rowling); and connects it with “Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can
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learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s
places.”(Rowling). She also use the quotes from Seneca (“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it
is, but how good it is, is what matters.”), and Plutarch (“What we achieve inwardly will change
outer reality.”) to supplement her personal experiences to drive home her points.
J. K. Rowling shapes her message using the repeated phrase —“… down the Classics
corridor.”— which seems to me like a metaphor for following your dreams, a theme she uses
throughout her speech. She also makes use of pauses before and after an important point, and as
a transition tool. She intersperses jokes throughout to help break the tension created: “If all you
remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve come out ahead of Baroness Mary
Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step to self-improvement.” (Rowling), “There is an expiry
date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old
enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.” (Rowling), “I am nearly finished.”
(Rowling), “…people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for
Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by … the knowledge that we held certain
photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime
Minister.”(Rowling). She also changes her tones—from joking tone, to personal tones, to serious
tones (Ted talks).
Rowling uses the “classic three” rhetoric tools – pathos, logos, and ethos—to help the
message come together. She uses pathos to help get the point across. For example, when she
talks about people’s apathy, she states “And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all.
They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling
to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear
screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does
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not touch them personally; they can refuse to know. I might be tempted to envy people who can
live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do. Choosing to
live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I
think the wilfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid.” (Rowling). She
uses logos to reason with her audience with “ So why do I talk about the benefits of failure?
Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself
that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the
only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found
the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because
my greatest fear had been realized….” (Rowling). she uses ethos to drive home the point and
have the audience accept her logic: “ Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn
and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people’s
places…. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand
or sympathise…. What is more, those who choose not to empathise enable real monsters. For
without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own
apathy.” (Rowling).
J. K. Rowling’s commencement speech at Harvard University on June 8 of 2008 is a
perfect example of the genre. She understands her audience and forms her speech appropriately
to them. She dresses and addresses the situation and occasion properly, as is expected by the
setting. She uses personal experiences and quotes to connect to her audience. She uses a repeated
phrase to connect her points, tells jokes to relieve tension, and uses changes in her tone to
emphasize her points. She also uses pathos, logos and ethos as tools of rhetoric.
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Work Cited.
J. K. Rowling. “Text of J.K. Rowling’s speech 'The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the
Importance of Imagination'”. Harvardgazette. Harvard University. 5 June 2008. Web. 10
Feb. 2014.
“JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure”. Ted talks. TED Conferences. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.