1.Yes, you’ve been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped. Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. You’ve been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored. You’ve been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie. Yes, you have. And, certainly, we’ve been to your games, your plays, your recitals, your science fairs. Absolutely, smiles ignite when you walk into a room, and hundreds gasp with delight at your every tweet (pip). Why, maybe you’ve even had your picture in the Townsman! (lokalavisen for Wellesley,Massachusetts) [Editor’s upgrade: Or The Swellesley Report! (a quasi-blog platform)] And now you’ve conquered high school… and, indisputably, here we all have gathered for you, the pride and joy of this fine community, the first to emerge from that magnificent new building… McCullough describes in this quote how you’re the centre of the universe and how you are the most important person on the earth. The part about everyone gathering to celebrate a single person and every other person smiling wherever you go is all of course meant as an exaggeration to emphasis his point and using this ludicrous way of mocking the audience to overstress his focal point of the quote. The quote is supposed to be understood as a mocking of the way young people get pampered with in these times and how every single one gets treated like they’re the centre of the universe.

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2. But do not get the idea you’re anything special. Because you’re not. Across the country no fewer than 3.2 million seniors are graduating about now from more than 37,000 high schools. That’s 37,000 valedictorians(student,der holder tale ved afslutningsceremonien)… 37,000 class presidents… 92,000 harmonizing altos (altstemmer)… 340,000 swaggering jocks(storsnuede sportsidioter)… 2,185,967 pairs of Uggs(australske luksusstøvler). But why limit ourselves to high school? After all, you’re leaving it. So think about this: even if you’re one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you. Imagine standing somewhere over there on Washington Street on Marathon Monday and watching sixty-eight hundred yous go running by. And consider for a moment the bigger picture: your planet, I’ll remind you, is not the center of its solar system, your solar system is not the center of its galaxy, your galaxy is not the center of the universe. In fact, astrophysicists assure us the universe has no center; therefore, you cannot be it. Neither can Donald Trump (American business magnate,tycoon born in 1946)… which someone should tell him… although that hair is quite a phenomenon.

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In this quote he uses logos to emphasis his point. he mocks the famous saying about someone being “one in a million” by actually doing math about how many “one in a million” equals and using imagery to actually make the audience realise how the bigger picture looks even if you set up 7000 versions of the same person on Washington

Street. McCullough uses humour as well in this quote to keep the mood light and not taking the speech to a too dark place, if you remove the humoristic parts of the quote it is actually a pretty bold message to send to the audience considering how the message actually received with the humour in it. The two humoristic parts are when he mentions all of the different statistic he reads up, “swaggering jocks, Uggs” are the two humoristic statistics he mentions to keep the mood light. The second humoristic feature he mentions is when he makes fun of the business tycoon Donald Trumps hair this part of the quote comes after the most bold message of the quote, where he uses the expert argument to explain how every single one of these students who think they are the centre of the universe gets their illusion broken. The quote is about how the students need to realise that they are not the centre of the universe and with extravagant argumentation explains the small part these students play in the world.

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3.The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life, is an achievement (bedrift), not something that will fall into your lap because you’re a nice person or mommy ordered it from the caterer. You’ll note the founding fathers(Amerikas grundlæggere) took pains to secure your inalienable right (umistelig ret)to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness–quite an active verb, “pursuit”–which leaves, I should think, little time for lying around watching parrots rollerskate on Youtube. 4. Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.

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This quotation describes the way these young people has started thinking about completing different challenges and not doing it just so you can say you did it but do it because you want to do but to gain the experience is what McCullough suggests. He uses climbing the mountain as an example of a difficult challenge to overcome. He also uses imagery when he mentions enjoying the air and beholding the view from atop the mountain. The imagery McCullough uses help bring the speech to life and also helps the students listening to the speech see what McCullough sees. This part of the speech seems to describe the message of the speech pretty well. What the quote ultimately means is that you have to do something because you want to do it, not because of what it might bring you.

This also seems to be the overall theme of the speech. You shouldn’t do something just to get the achievement it gives but you should do it to enjoy the challenge it brings. This referrers to all the people taking long educations and boring jobs just to make money but you should do what you love enjoy the experience of doing it. The things you’ve experienced makes you the person you are and McCullough stresses the point that you’re not the material possessions you own. This can be compared to the speech1 Brad Pitts fictional character Tyler Durden held in the movie Fight Club where he talks about how the person you are is not defined by how much money you have in your bank or the car you drive etc.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo-wkv8gW6k