Jk rowling harvard speech rhetorical analysis

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.