Jk rowling 2008 harvard speech transcript

279Liz Winhover The Power of Failure: J. K. Rowlings’ 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech

STUDENT ESSAY

The Power of Failure: J. K. Rowlings’ 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech Liz Winhover The following essay is a rhetorical analysis, an essay in which the writer, Liz Winhover, steps back and— instead of getting involved in what is being argued—examines the argument’s rhetoric. In other words, Winhover’s essay focuses on how J. K. Rowling communicates her ideas. Notice that Winhover mentions Rowling’s ideas, in places summarizing what Rowling says, but that her essay focuses on how Rowling develops and supports her points.

In the summer of 2008, J. K. Rowling took to the podium to deliver the commencement speech for the graduates of Harvard University. At the time, Rowling had published the final installment of her successful children series, Harry Potter, and had movies in the works for those same books (“J. K. Rowling”). She was not an odd choice for Harvard’s commencement. Her widespread success as an author represents the grand accomplishment one might associate with Harvard University, one of the top institutions in the world.

The addressees were the graduates of Harvard’s 2008 class. The intended audience, however, stretched further to include the entire audience present on the day of the com- mencement. Because the timing has now passed for the delivery of the speech, the audience now is anyone who reads a transcript or watches a recording of the speech. Today’s audience’s detachment from the genuine occasion means they will have a different reaction to the speech than the graduates had on the day it was delivered.

The urgency of the situation is interesting. Rowling is giving a commencement speech, a type of delivery that requires specific timing because there is only one day on which to give a commencement speech—the day of the graduation. Additionally, there is the occasion—the graduation itself. While the occasion includes talking about the future lives of the graduates, the exigence (the situation that requires attention) could relate to the declining American eco- nomic status (“2008”), prompting Rowling to speak about “the benefits of failure” (Rowling) because graduates are entering an increasingly selective workforce. However, the speech is still fueled by the need to address the graduates on their accomplishments and comment on the possibilities of their future.

Rowling focuses on two main subjects— the benefits of failure and the importance of imagination. She talks first about her own failures: “I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, and a lone parent, and as poor as possible.” But she also explains the benefits those failures brought her because,

‘The Power of Failure: J. K. Rowlings’ 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech,” by Liz Winhover. Reprinted with permission of the author.

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Chapter 9 Responding to Arguments280

she says, “failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.” Next she focuses on her work with Amnesty International and how this helped to expand her imagination and empathy for others. She also underscores how empathy for other human beings is needed to combat evil in the world.

The first line of reasoning involves the “benefits of failure.” This can be seen by break- ing the reasoning down and looking at the grounds, the support for the claim: Rowling failed early in her career, which she talks about extensively. The first warrant (an idea that connects claim and support) following this statement is that everyone fails in life (failure being relative to each person’s expectations and hopes). Rowling backs this up when she says, “Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates.” When she points out the unavoidable “caprices of the Fates,” she suggests that failure is widely experienced. In other words, it’s something Rowling and her audience shares. This leads to the claim that failure can have benefits, as Rowling shows with her own story of “rags to riches.”

While Rowling’s speech resonates with such basic presuppositions as higher education is good and success is good, she explores another presupposition more in depth and pushes against it: failure should be avoided. She explains that failing meant stripping away all distractions around her, which allowed her to “direct all [her] energy into finishing the only work that mat- tered to [her].” However, she doesn’t completely reject the presupposition that failure should be avoided, but argues that failure can have positive benefits. It showed her that she “had a strong will, and more discipline than [she] had suspected.” She is suggesting that failure taught her more about herself.

Another appeal seen throughout the speech is ethos. Rowling doesn’t have to laud her own credentials and accomplishments, partially because Harvard has a history of choosing only well-established and accomplished persons and because of the widespread success of her book series and movie series. However, she does have to establish her credentials as a failure, a side of her the audience would know less. She spends several paragraphs discussing the range and depth of her failures, establishing that she is qualified to talk about such a subject. She also speaks about her experiences with Amnesty International, creating a pathos–ridden passage about the empathetic and imaginative lessons this job taught her.

Rowling’s second line of reasoning focuses on the importance of imagination. Specifically, she claims that imagination can make us more empathetic. The grounds, or support, for this claim can be seen as Rowling herself. It can be argued that she is, or carries, the ethos to back this claim. Because of her far-reaching success as an author of fiction/fantasy stories, she can be relied on to have a solid imagination and, therefore, state its importance. This logic relies on a two-part warrant—an idea that connects a claim and its support. The first warrant states, imagination can allow us to see beyond ourselves. If we are able to see beyond ourselves, then the second warrant follows that we can imagine other people’s experiences and accept the validity of those experiences. Rowling backs this warrant with considerable information about her work with Amnesty International, which she cites as “One of the greatest formative experiences of

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281Liz Winhover The Power of Failure: J. K. Rowlings’ 2008 Harvard Commencement Speech

my life. . .[that] informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those [Harry Potter] books,” suggesting that being aware of the stories of those around us can lead to greater imagination. This leads to the unstated claim that with the information imagination brings us, we can be more empathetic.

Rowling’s 2008 address came at a time when the United States housing market was expe- riencing a decline and later that year would crash. The message of Rowling’s speech would speak to the graduates’ future struggles because as she says, “Talent and intelligence has never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates.”