On Not Winning The Nobel Prize By Margaret Atwood Speech

Margaret Atwood’s ‘Spotty-Handed Villainesses’ and Doris Lessing’s ‘On Not Winning the Nobel Prize’ are both valued speeches due to the fact they evoke a personal response in their intended audiences and offer insights into timeless issues. These issues are timeless because they do not have a clear answer and will remain a controversial topic that is relevant across time. The ideas offered by these speeches resonate beyond the contextual audience and hold value for a twenty first century responder. Atwood’s speech was delivered to a well-read audience and draws attention to gender inequality by examining the representation of women in literature, while Lessing spoke to the general public, through her Nobel lectures, to highlight the gulf between first and third world countries, comparing the hunger for books in Africa with the growing indifference to education in the West.

Atwood’s speech is valued as she builds a connection with her audience to create a personal reflection on gender inequality. The metaphor of “cookie-cutting” and “over sugaring” highlights the repetitive, …show more content…
The reference to the Nobel prize in “I don’t think many of the pupils of this school will get prizes” is particularly confronting for her immediate audience as it brings immediacy to the fact that it is impossible to overcome poverty without education. In the narrative of the African mother, Lessing appeals to pathos by describing her children’s throats as “full of dust”. This emotionally symbolises the thirsting voices that helplessly await the nourishment of education and creates an emotional response. It is through emotionally charged rhetoric that Lessing evokes an emotional response to increase access to education. Lessing’s call for greater access to education is one of a timeless nature and will remain relevant to past and present