What Is The Message Of You Are Not Special By David Mccullough

David McCullough Jr. Commencement Speech Analysis

It is June 1, 2012, and Wellesley High School students are moments away from graduating. At this time, these graduates are getting ready to adventure out into the outside world, the adult world, the world outside of high school. Many of them may be nervous, and many also may be excited, but all are ready to embrace this day where they are in the spotlight, where they are the most important and special person. However, little do they know that their teacher, David McCullough Jr (2012), is about to pull them away from this spotlight through his now-famous commencement speech "You Are Not Special." In his speech, McCullough effectively illustrated his message that the graduates do not have to

At the start of McCullough's speech, he started off in a seemly unusual way, with the phrase "you are not special" directed to the graduates of Wellesley High School. McCullough needed to not only mention this phrase but also make it memorable too. By using allusions, McCullough was able to create a more personalized connection for the audience, he does through teaching that "despite every assurance of a certain corpulent purple dinosaur, that nice Mister Rogers and your batty Aunt Sylvia, no matter how often your maternal caped crusader has swooped in to save you - you're nothing special" (McCullough, 2012). As McCullough called upon these familiar faces for the graduates, he helped them comprehend just how common being told they are special had been. Furthermore, McCullough showed that the experience of feeling like a special "one-of-a-kind" person is not a unique one, that in reality "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" (McCullough, 2012). Through this use of logos, it allowed the audience to gain a more logical understanding of the concept of not being special and exactly why they are not considered special. This is a vital idea in McCullough's speech because to achieve his message that being special does not limit

Even though he told the graduates they are not special, he does not want them to believe that this is a bad thing, in fact, McCullough's message is to embrace not being special. To effectively achieve this, he uses repetition as he explains, "No longer is it how you play the game, no longer is it even whether you win or lose, or learn or grow, or enjoy yourself doing it" (McCullough, 2012). Through this use of repetition with the phrase "no longer", McCullough is better able to help the audience re-evaluate their previous mindsets on being special. He teaches them to ask themselves if they only want to believe they are special because they want to feel like they are winning in life - this is the mindset that McCullough wants to change in these graduates. Through this quote, it is showing how sometimes being non-special is okay because through it, you can better learn and grow. He also further portrays more uses of repetition to hone in this idea, he accomplishes this as he often restates the word "something" multiple times. This is prevalent when he describes how the common mentality of wanting to win prizes and trophies in life stems from needing "something to put on the mantelpiece, something to pose with, crow about, something with which to leverage ourselves into a better spot on