Steve Jobs and the Idea of Living - Assignment Example

DRAFT Rhetorical Analysis on How to Live Before You Die The idea of living one’s dream is very debatable as some people seek to adapt to the societal norms through their actions while others do what pleases them. It is factual that the approach to one’s dream defines their success in life. Indeed, success in all fields depends on the pursuit of our dreams. As the CEO and Co-Founder of Apple and Pixar who developed some of the best technologies in the world (“Stanford University” 1), Steve Jobs achieved immense success for thinking outside the box and doing what made him happy while disregarding societal norms. In his commencement address to the graduating class of 2005 at the Stanford University, Steve Jobs strives to uphold his argument that one should pursue their dreams without allowing challenges to stop them (“Stanford University” 1). Steve Jobs tells three stories of his life to convince the students to focus on their dreams and disregard all challenges, which would stop them. He told the students to use such challenges as opportunities to achieve more. The address focuses on three stories that would have prevented Steve Jobs from achieving his dreams but instead he used them as stepping stones to learn and record huge success in technology. Steve Jobs derives various arguments in the three stories regarding the family challenges at his childhood, professional challenges at his workplace, and health challenges from his diagnosis with cancer (“Stanford University” 1). In establishing his argument, Steve Jobs uses different rhetorical strategies and establishes his credibility to convince the target audience on the need to focus on one’s goals and use challenges as opportunities to succeed in life. For us to understand the intentions of Steve Jobs in developing an\d utilizing his argument on TED Talk during the commencement address at the Stanford University, we must analyze the target audience, apparent purpose of the argument, and the context where the argument occurred. Steve Jobs argues that challenges will always be there in our pursuit for success but we should always maximize the challenges and treat them as opportunities to achieving our dreams. The context of Steve Jobs’ argument emanates from his personal experiences where he faced many challenges before making immense contributions in modern technology. Moreover, various statistics showing how graduates lose their dreams after facing serious challenges in life developed the context of his argument. Moreover, the fact that Steve Jobs never graduated from college and the idea of addressing graduates from one of the finest universities in the world formed a good context for him to present his argument (“Stanford University” 1). Additionally, Steve Jobs had immense knowledge on technology and he faced significant challenges towards achieving that knowledge. Indeed, he has even won numerous awards and attracted global attention during his life and after his death. The apparent purpose of his argument was to convince the graduating class of 2005 at the Stanford University that even without a degree and despite numerous challenges, one could still make it in their career. Indeed, as graduates, he sought to convince them that they have a better chance to succeed if they remain focused and overcome the challenges. Notably, Steve Jobs directed his argument towards the graduating class of 2005 at the Stanford University, other attendants at the ceremony, and everybody facing challenges in the pursuit of their dreams. The three stories that Steve Jobs presented in his speech offers relevant facts regarding the challenges that Steve Jobs faced in the pursuit of his dream, which convinces the audience to adopt his argument. Indeed, Jobs presents fundamental basis of ethos for purposes of enabling the audience to identify with him and help them to understand the concept of challenges in the pursuit to success. He states, “I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest Ive ever gotten to a college graduation.” Indeed, he attracts the audience to his challenges in life by asserting that he dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before he really quit. This enables the audience to realize that he had serious challenges in his academic life. These relevant facts about challenges in life offer evidence of Steve’s understanding of challenges and hence his credibility to address that topic. Indeed, the three stories present the facts about Job’s challenging life thus enabling the audience to realize that the speaker is knowledgeable and has authority over the subject matter. With this, the audience was more comfortable and had more trust in Job’s argument. In addition, Steve Jobs used his apparel. He always had a casual wear even in this case. His casual wear enables him to connect with the audience, which the audience appreciates. Indeed, the casual wear removes the aspect of formality that other speakers in such a forum would use. As such, the audience would easily accept the facts and arguments of Steve Jobs. Moreover, Steve Job uses underlying emotions in presenting his argument thus allowing the audience to sympathize and identify with his challenges. He derives pity by stating, “So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.” This enables the audience to realize how challenges nearly ruined his entire life. Indeed, since Steve Jobs overcame this challenge, the audience had to buy his argument that we can use challengers as opportunities for our future success. He also cements his argument by using irony where he said, “Remembering that Ill be dead soon is the most important tool Ive ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.” This serves the purpose of associating the audience with the sad reality of death. Steve Jobs uses the assertion that “Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.” This serves the purpose of convincing the audience that indeed, we can overcome challenges in life and that death can be positive in some way. Works Cited Read More