In the spring of 2013, George Saunders, a creative writing
teacher at Syracuse, delivered a brilliant speech that not only
entertained, but also advised a new set of graduates venturing out into
the world. Saunders wished to provide these young minds with advice
that stemmed from his own life experience, giving them something
that could help guide them for the rest of their lives. Simply put, the
goal of this speech was to have the graduates leave the ceremony
consciously making an effort to be more kind in their everyday lives to
their fellow man. He wanted to impart to these scholars that his only
regret in life was not being kinder, and that they too will regret not
being kinder later in life. To deliver this message with skill, Saunders
employs the use of the rhetorical triangle, Kairos, Stasis Theory, as well
as direct tone to persuade his audience to believe in his message.

The key for Saunders's speech to have any affect at all is to first
make sure the crowd remains attentive to what he is saying. While a
good audience should have their mind focused on the speaker, at any
given graduation ceremony one could tell that at least half of the
attendants are not paying attention; therefore, Saunders must keep
the audience entertained. He does this by maintaining a lighthearted
and direct tone throughout the speech. The direct nature of his speech
allows for his humor to show through. His use of humor, particularly
directed at himself, not only keeps the speech entertaining, but also
keeps the audience focused (and a focused audience will remember
the message of a speech better than an audience who was not
listening to begin with). His tone also has a double purpose: other than
allowing him to appear funny to the audience, the tone also allows the
audience to trust the speaker. This is one of the more powerful tools in
writing because it transforms a piece of writing from empty words to
one with meaning. To elaborate, a person would not follow the advice
of a stranger; you would need to trust them to take stock in the words
they were saying. Saunders's tone does just that; it allows the
audience to trust him. Establishing a strong center of trust between the
audience and speaker is one of the most effective ways to convey a
message and therefore aids Saunders in convincing the graduates that
they should live lives of kindness. Since his tone and use of humor not
only keep the audience focused but also allow them to trust Saunders,
they are effective in helping to show the graduates how important it is
to be kind throughout their lives.

Tone is not Saunders's only means of gaining the audience's
trust, though. Towards the beginning of the speech, the author includes
several allusions to mistakes he made in his early life. Though he did
not regret these mistakes, he tells about them to show he is human
and makes mistakes too. Saunders alludes to being a 'knuckle-puller in
a slaughter house' skinny dipping in a river in Sumatra' humiliating
himself at a hockey game in front of the girl he liked'.
He does this not only to show the audience that these mistakes
are not the regrets a person should hold at the end of their life, but
also to convey that he is a normal person who makes mistakes. This is
most important because, similar to tone, these stories establish trust
between the speaker and audience. In any type of writing where one
wishes to deliver a message to the audience ethos should be the most
used corner of the rhetorical triangle. Saunders realized this and
utilized ethos throughout his speech to gain the trust of the audience.
Since the use of the audience's trust allows him to deliver his message
of kindness to the graduates, it is a most effective strategy. With this
newly gained trust, he can begin to explain why not being kind enough
was one of his greatest regrets, but for that he imparted the use of
pathos.

Saunders further continued to use the powers of the rhetorical
triangle when he took a good chunk of the speech to allude once again
to his youth. He speaks of a girl who had few to no friends and was
teased daily at school. As he tells this story the audience empathizes
with the young girl, feeling her pain and wishing people had been
kinder to her. This bit of emotion pushes the audience over the edge
and readies them to believe what ever he has to say. The use of this
story is key because it makes the audience realize that they do not
want a world where there are sad children who have no friends; they
want a kinder world.

From this point in the speech, Saunders advances to give his
advice on how to be kind and how it will benefit not only the soon to be
kinder graduates, but also those around them. Pathos, when used
correctly, can be a very useful tool of persuasion. When a piece of
writing, or in this case a speech, can evoke the emotion of the
audience it will in turn give the writing meaning to them as well. These
stories might have been the most important part of the speech,
however, without proper organization they would have been
meaningless. The author's organization of these stories is fundamental
to proving his point. Without them, the audience would not have
trusted Saunders or been at all interested in what he had to say.
However, the way he chose to lay out his stories allowed him to
effectively gain the audience's trust and willingness to change with his
message of being kind throughout one's life. Therefore the use of the
rhetorical triangle through the telling and organization of the stories
was a very effective way for the author to prove his message to the
audience.

As one examines Saunders speech to the graduates it also
quickly becomes apparent that he used Stasis theory as a tool to help
show the audience that people should live a life of kindness. He
presents the conjecture near the beginning of the speech saying
people do not live lives of kindness. Instead they pursue of lives of self
interest until later in life when they are old and regretful like him. He
provides three reasons as to why people are selfish, '(1) we're central to the
universe' (2) we're separate from the universe' and (3) we're permanent,'.
This is a serious problem that affects every single person on this planet, even though
he only speaks to a small crowd at a graduation the problem is present everywhere:
people are not kind enough to their fellow man. Saunders then closes his Stasis Theory by
reasoning with the audience to lead a life a of kindness. All of us are in this life together
and all of us get 'our butts kicked by life' but instead of banding together, people
separate. That is the problem.

Saunders also employs the use of Kairos as a final means of trying make the
audience agree with his purpose. All the elements of Kairos are present here. His timing
is excellent and there is a sense of urgency. He gives this speech at a graduation
ceremony in front of a crowd of graduates eager to go on to college and take on the
world. They are taking the first steps to living the rest of their lives and Saunders has
taken the opportunity to give them some direction as to how they should go about it. His
timing is perfect presenting these young minds with an ideal to grasp on to drive them the
rest of their lives. The urgency is present in the sense that time could be running out. He
presents his regrets to show that life moves fast and his greatest regret was not being
kinder to people. Even though his audience is young this idea that life moves fast also
implies that life will end. This is an obvious fact but as he stated earlier in the speech
people tend to believe they are permanent. So now that he has shattered the idea of
permanence to these young scholars he has given them urgency like a salesman giving a
pitch. This urgency only helps him get his point across to these graduates because as they
realize life is short and it will end they will want to live it without any regrets. Since
Saunders previously stated his greatest regret was not being kinder to more people the
audience will now take hold of the idea that they should live a life of kindness so as not
to repeat his mistakes.

This would have been a very interesting graduation speech to
attend, especially since graduation ceremonies are typically a very
droll few hours. Saunders would have a been a treat to hear give this
great speech that so effectively utilizes many rhetorical strategies
including the following: Kairos, Stasis Theory, use of the rhetorical
triangle, and a direct and humorous tone. I am sure this speech led to
a kinder graduating class, but we could all benefit from listening to
what Saunders had to say about kindness. Perhaps if it was one of an
old man's only regret it would be important enough for us all take the
time to think about how we could be kinder and make this world a
kinder one as a whole.

