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Symbolism And Isolation Depicted In Jason Reynolds's Speech

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Ian Brown Mrs. Korey English 2 Advanced Honors 21 March 2023 In his affectionately uplifting and cleverly crafted speech given to the graduating class of Lesley university, Jason Reynolds clearly articulates and creates strong connections with the graduating class using the methods of symbolism and anecdotes from his past to drive his point of getting everyone to stick together and help each other get opportunities they would need to succeed. In his speech, Reynolds proves that he possesses the ability to symbolize the point that he is trying to make. One of the examples of symbolism is the fish being stuck in the tank isolated from society. Reynolds states “After putting the fish in a tank, he asked us to name it and feed it every day. There was only one rule - a non-negotiable. We could not, under any …show more content…

The fish being stuck in this tank and isolated from society shows how some people could be stuck in a problem and might not know how to solve the problem or that they are even in a problem. Other people looking into this problem could be intimidated by the possibility of getting involved in this problem or getting themselves in their own problem. This can stop people from helping them, for example, the teacher “Mr. Williams” decided to one day pick up the fish and throw it out of the tank onto the ground, and all of the students were frozen in fear and anxiety when they saw the fish on the ground and they knew it was dying but they were too afraid of getting suspended to help the fish. At that moment two brave girls saved the fish and still ended up getting suspended even though they did what was right. Moreover, another example of symbolism is when the audience was told

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