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Essential Questions For The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch

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The book that I have been reading is The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, and I have read 55 pages out of 220. So far, there are answers to my current essential questions about the book. For “How does knowing certain knowledge impact an individual’s actions and behaviors?”, the answer is that it it can impact how this individual thinks in the future and how they develop further plans. Similarly, this is how Randy acts when he finds out that he has terminal cancer, begins to panic and worry about his future and his family’s future. He has a fear for what will happen to his family without him, however, he soon realizes that he has to look for the light at the end of the tunnel. For “How does fear impact a person’s actions and behavior?”, the answer …show more content…

A major theme in this book is how to overcome hardship and how to make the best of a bad situation, for the author has to deal with these situations when he finds out he has cancer. Although he has a terminal illness, he tries to make the best out of his situation by “help[ing] others find a path to fulfilling their own dreams” and by giving a lecture on how to live life to the fullest (Pausch 10). The author is very successful in explaining this theme by giving advice on how to deal with hardship and difficult information to handle. The author structures his work by using many anecdotes about his life and the struggles he has had to go through. Pausch states in the book that “[he] didn’t believe in the no-win scenario” (Pausch 45). This supports my my essential question because this explains that fear and certain knowledge does not always affect how an individual acts and behaves. In some cases, at first Randy was worried for his future, but in the end he realizes that his family will do just fine without him. These factors can affect and drive human behavior, however, for Pausch, these factors did not heavily influence how he

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