David Brooks It's Not About You Analysis

Do elders over encourage college graduates to follow their hearts, but despite this expect them to be the most successful? Well- renowned columnist, David Brooks in his opinion piece, "It's Not About You" addresses the inconsistency between the pointers graduates are given by adults and what is hoped for them by these individuals. Brooks' purpose is to illustrate that although cliché advice is given to these young adults, it cannot be followed because of the societal pressure to be successful. He adopts a blunt and sometimes sarcastic tone in order to convey that society's pressure of success contradicts what is advised of graduates when choosing a career. The author emphasizes the discrepancy of what society tells graduates versus what is expected of them by manipulating irony and parallelism. …show more content…
He utilizes parallelism by emphasizing “Follow your own passion, chart your own course” as “the litany of expressive individualism” (6) yet “this mantra misleads” (7). He repeats the pronoun “your” in order to illustrate that graduates are encouraged to forge their own paths based on their passions but this cannot be done because success is what is truly admired. The use of the italics further contribute to the usage of parallelism because it puts emphasis on the pronoun. The emphasis on the pronoun illustrates that it is asked of graduates to do what they love, yet this can often be impossible in order to achieve success. This use of parallelism conveys a sarcastic, almost mocking tone to the audience. The repetition and emphasis of the pronoun, “your” indicate a mocking tone because it is poking fun at the fact, “your” is used when in fact graduates cannot follow their own destinies in order to compete in today’s world. Overall, the author’s use of parallelism conveys that these overused saying do not hold true because of the competitiveness of today’s