What Is The Purpose Of Aaron Sorkin Commencement Speech

Aaron Sorkin's Commencement speech
Aaron Sorkin a Syracuse graduate, gave a very inspiring commencement speech for the graduates and the families of the graduates at Syracuse University on May 13th 2012. In the speech, the main topic was overcoming failures everywhere in life. He talks about his struggles when he was a student at Syracuse and all the battles he fought then. Earlier in his life he battled a drug addiction with cocaine: Sorkin said in his speech he didn't think he could write without cocaine but he continued to battle his addiction which he eventually overcame, and as sorkin himself stated, he wrote multiple tv series movies and plays. Sorkin’s speech was effective because his goal of the speech was reached with his speech by he way he talked about pathos ethos and logos. Sorkin's speech he used pathos by talking about his struggles in life that brought him to be where he is today. He tells a story from when he was back in college in his first drama class, how he failed it his first time. But when it came around to his second year of taking the same class he tried harder and focused. As stated by …show more content…
When he recalls his memories at Syracuse “time to time the city of Syracuse experiences inclement weather. All this going to class and reading and walking through snow, wind chill that’s apparently powered by jet engines”. When Sorkin can relate to the graduating class like that he lets them know that he went through the same things they have gone through in college. ”Develop your own compass, and trust it. Take risks, dare to fail, remember the first person through the wall always gets hurt.” In this quote sorkin explains logic because it's obvious if you are the first to make it through the wall it's going to hurt and it’s going to be a struggle. But after you get through the “wall” you will become a more knowledgeable person than you were on the other side. The