Name: Paula Hsiao

Date: 1/9/16

Block: F

THIS IS A TEST! There is no talking or helping one another on this assignment.

Please annotate Both speeches and then answer BOTH questions (if possible using TIEA).

Author: Matthew McConaughey

Title: 2014 Oscar Acceptance Speech

Delivered on 2 March 2014, Los Angeles, USA

Context: Matthew McConaughey has won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in “The Dallas Buyers Club”.

Theme: He’s here because everyday he has someone who provides him with opportunities (God), something to look forward to (family), and someone to chase (himself). These things help him to become a better actor and helps him want to become a better version of himself. Surround yourself with people and things that will help you strive to be better.  

Blue - Narrative pace / order of sequence of events

Green - Connections

(Parentheses - Own Comments)

Orange - Questions

Purple - Theme

Thank you thank you thank you to the Academy for this. All 6,000 members. Thank you to the other nominees. All of these performances were impeccable in my opinion, I didn’t see a false note anywhere. I want to thank Jean-Marc Vallée, our director. I want to thank Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner, who I worked with daily.

There’s a few things, about three things to my count (what does he mean “to his count”) , that I need each day. One of them is something to look up to, another is something to look forward to, and another is someone to chase.

* Connections (something he needs to help him become better each day/something to look up to/something to look forward to/ someone to chase)

Now, first off, I want to thank God, because that’s who I look up to. He’s graced my life with opportunities  *(Connections: God/Opportunities)  that I know are not of my hand or any other human hand. He has shown me that it’s a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates (When you are good to someone, they’ll be good to you back, basically, what goes around, comes around). In the words of the late Charlie Laughton, who said,“When you got God, you got a friend *(Connections: God/A friend). And that friend is you *(Connections: A friend/Yourself).”

(So is God your friend or are you your own friend?)

To my family, that’s who and what I look forward to. To my father, I know he’s up there right now with a big pot of gumbo. He’s got a lemon meringue pie over there. He’s probably in his underwear, and he’s got a cold can of Miller Lite and he’s dancing right now. To you dad, you taught me what it means to be a man. To my mother who’s here tonight, who taught me and my two older brothers — demanded that we respect ourselves. And what we in turn learned was then we were better able to respect others *(Connections: Respecting ourselves/Respecting others better). Thank you for that, Mama. To my wife Camila and my kids Levi, Vida, Mr. Stone (Is Mr. Stone his child?), the courage and significance you give me every day I go out the door is unparalleled. You are the four people in my life that I want to make the most proud of me. Thank you.

And to my hero, that’s who I chase. Now, when I was 15 years old, I had a very important person in my life come to me (Who was the person because they must’ve been very close to him if they were able to stick around for that many years?) and say, “Who’s your hero?” And I said, “I don’t know, I’ve got to think about that. Give me a couple of weeks.” I come back two weeks later, this person comes up and says, “Who’s your hero?” I said, “I thought about it. It’s me in 10 years.” So I turned 25. Ten years later, that same person comes to me and says, “So, are you a hero?” And I was like, “Not even close! No, no no!” She said, “Why?” I said, “Because my hero’s me at 35.”

*(Order of events: Saying every 10 years that he is not his own hero yet is crucial. He keeps on saying what happened 10 years after each time he reached that age because it’s building up the hype towards the part where he says he will never be the hero because the audience thinks that he will be his own hero because he said he was going to be that in 10 years. By going up the years and repetitively saying he’s not his hero yet, the audience slowly come to the realisation that he will never be his hero and pieces together what he’s trying to communicate instead of having him try and explain right off the bat that he will never be his hero which will confuse the audience.).

So you see every day, every week, every month, and every year of my life, my hero’s always ten years away. I’m never going to be my hero. I’m not going to attain that. I know I’m not. And that’s just fine with me, because that keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing *(Connections: Someone to chase/Yourself,  Chasing your future self/ Trying to improve to be a hero).

*(Order of events: He finally reveals to the audience that he will never be his own hero because it’s always 10 years away. It’s important to put this part here and not in the previous paragraph because if you put it before, the audience would not understand what he’s talking about and they needed to hear the other whole story before ).

So, to any of us, whatever those things are, whatever it is we look up to, whatever it is we look forward to, and whoever it is we’re chasing. To that I say: Amen. To that I say, All right, all right, all right. To that I say, just keep living *(Connections: Whatever we do/Just keep living)   , eh?

Thank you.

Author: Lou Gehrig

Title: Farewell to Baseball

Delivered on 4 July 1939, New York, USA

Theme: Although he has been given one bad break, he still has a lot to be grateful for/look on the bright side.

Blue - Literary Devices

Green - Personality traits

Context: Lou Gehrig, a well known New York Yankees baseball player had recently been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS. Lou Gehrig and his many fans knew the disease would kill him before the speech was given. Lou Gehrig delivered this speech before the last game of his career to a full Yankee Stadium crowd.

Text: Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?

This one part alone says a lot about his character. Instead of thinking about how good he is or that the fans are lucky to see him, he appreciates the support that he gets from the fans and he understands how fortunate he is. You can tell he’s very humble and that he recognizes the value of everything he’s been given.

Sure I’m lucky.

Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy?

Sure I’m lucky.

* Literary Device: He started off the speech by saying he was really lucky and then in the first paragraph, he explains why. Then he goes on to say he’s lucky again. This pattern repeats again to prove his point about why he’s lucky. He’s also using repetition to bring the audience’s attention to all the opportunities he’s had and not the negative things that has happened to him.

When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies -- that’s something.

He must’ve been really good if a rival team would send you a gift, which makes you wonder how he didn’t get so big headed and still manages to appreciate the little things. It’s hard for normal people to just stop and realise how lucky they are, but when you have lots of money, it’s probably harder.

When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter -- that’s something.

When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body -- it’s a blessing.

When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed -- that’s the finest I know.

*Literary Device: Again, he’s using repetition to show the audience how lucky he is, just in a different sentence structure because he recognizes how lucky he is and he wants the audience to know that if HE doesn’t feel like he’s unlucky, then THEY shouldn’t, either.

*You can truly tell he’s very observant because through the things he’s listed, you can tell he notices the effort everyone puts into helping him get to where he is and he notices every small thing that life does for him.

So, I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for.

*Literary Device: At the end, he’s summarizing his repetition and concluding it by saying, although he has had one bad thing happen, he lives for all the good that has happened to him.

Questions 1: Essay Response. Respond to one of the following:

1. To what degree does the context of Lou Gehrig’s “Farewell Address”  influence the structure, speech techniques and language that was used in the speech. (A1, A2)

In Lou Gehrig’s “Farewell Address,” he talks about why he’s lucky, suggesting that repetition and use of certain speech techniques were necessary in keeping the mood happy and light. Whilst listing the reasons why he considers himself lucky, Lou repeatedly says, “Sure I’m lucky.” By using the sentence “Sure I’m lucky,” after listing something that’s good in his life, he helps assure the audience that he is aware and grateful of everything that is good in his life. Also, by repeating that he’s lucky over and over after he says something, he is recenters the audience’s focus onto the main point of his speech (being lucky despite one bad break) as opposed to just listing everything good that has happened to him, which to the audience could’ve sounded like he was bragging.

2. Explain how Matthew McConaughey relies on performance to detail and justify his opinion in “2014 Oscar Acceptance Speech”. (A1, A2)

Question 2: You must answer this.

Compare and Contrast Matthew McConaughey’s 2014 Oscar Acceptance Speech” and Lou Gehrig’s “Farewell Address” (A4)

The structure in Matthew McConaughey’s speech made it so that he only had one paragraph dedicated solely to being grateful for what he has been given, however both speeches were able to recognize the opportunities they have been given. During Lou’s speech, he constantly repeats the sentence “that’s something,” while in Matthew’s speech, he says “He’s graced my life with opportunities” whilst talking about God. Lou Gehrig’s speech was mainly focused around the use of repetition so he could constantly list opportunities that he’s been given and still flow smoothly from one idea to another just by putting “that’s something” in between. Matthew split his speech into 3 separate parts so he could really only talk about given opportunities in the section about God’s grace.  They were both able to acknowledge how fortunate they are though, Lou kept saying “that’s something” so we know that he understands the importance of not taking things for granted and Matthew very obviously understands how lucky he is; telling everyone that it’s God who has given him opportunities and not all his work.