TOW #27 - "Attitude" (Written text)

                On June 14th, 1983, Margaret Atwood delivered a commencement address to a graduating class of Victoria College. In her speech, she talks about her process of thinking about what to say in this speech. She talks about how she thought about it for awhile and was unsure about which route to take. She could either be very positive and sugar coat adulthood, where the flawless educational system will push them out of any troubles. However instead of portraying false information and giving false hope, she decided to be realistic and frank. As a writer, she expressed that it wasn't a wise career path to take as it is unreliable and risky. She states, "But sober reflection led me to the conclusion that this topic too was a washout; for, as you will soon discover, a liberal arts education doesn't exactly prepare you for life." She then went onto exposing the errors in the educational system and pointing out how unrealistic it is. She pointed out that many things that are taught in school are not true in the real world. Overall, most of her essay points out the negatives, yet realistic parts of adulthood. However, her pessimistic outlook has a point to her overall purpose. For example she states, "on the one hand, we ourselves live daily with the threat of annihilation. We're just a computer button and a few minutes away from it, and the gap between us and it is narrowing every day. On the other hand, the catastrophe the threatens us as a species, and most other species as well, is not unpredictable and uncontrollable, like the eruption of the volcano that destroyed Pompeii. If it occurs, we can die with the dubious satisfaction of knowing that the death of the world was a man-made and therefore preventable event, and that the failure to prevent it was a failure of human will". Atwood stresses the ability of looking at one thing with multiple eyes. We can then create more positive changes as our government runs on opinion of the people. Wthe use of humor and attention grabbers, she was able to not only hold the attention of her audience but deliver an empowering message.