Analysis Of Steve Jobs Speech Commencement Speech

I consider Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005 to be one of the most effective speeches. He uses mechanics of speech to craft a well-rounded speech that is crowned by his use of rhetorical devices. Jobs gives relevant and fundamental knowledge of his life and experiences with his rhetorical approach. In his speech to the Stanford’s graduation class, he tells different stories of love, loss, discovery and difficulty he faced in his life to encourage new graduates as they continue to mature in life. He encourages students to pursue their dreams and not be discouraged by failures they might experience in life. Jobs starts his speech with humor. He said, “I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation,” this statement instantly added an element of humor to his speech and this was well observed by the audience. The opening statements of the speech automatically lightened the mood. Steve jobs’ introduction appeals to the emotions of the audience, giving Jobs a valuable opening into the rest of his speech. In the whole speech, Jobs recites three stories from his personal life, which gave him inspiration. His first story is about him growing up and his role in the development of Apple computers, Pixar Animation and NeXT. In the whole first story, he induces emotions in the audience when he talks about his childhood and being adopted. His biological parents could not afford to raise him and put him up for adoption to ensure his well being. They searched for a well-educated family in an effort to secure his future education. Jobs tells the audience that he eventually went to college after seventeen year?, but then wits them with surprising twist; “Aft... ... middle of paper ... ...tentially be cured with a one surgery. He uses this story of death to share that life is short. “Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by Dogma. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” He uses repetition and parallelism to drive his message home. Steve Jobs played a huge role in revolutionizing technology. He is considered to be a major role model for people and has heavily influenced many lives. I was able to witness some of the techniques he uses to inspire and push people in his speech. I consider the graduates, who were present on that day, lucky to be able to hear a few words of wisdom, inspiration and character from him.