A 1996 COMMENCEMENT SPEECH
1.LITERAL COMPREHENSION :
Salman Rushdie was invited for commencement speech for 1996 for Bard Students. In fact, Kermit the frog was invited by the Southampton University on that day but he was unable to come, so Rushdie was invited. At first in his speech, he tells his own past experiences when he had been a student of Cambridge University. He had graduated from Cambridge University in 1968 but the year, 1968 was memorable for him because someone had spilled a bucketful gravy soup in his room and many of his cloths, books damaged but the college administrator accused him for such misdeed. So, to take his degree in commencement day, he had to pay fine. Anyway, he paid the fine and went to take his certificate wearing brown shoes. But he was refused to give his certificate in that colour of shoes. Later on, changing his shoes went there at the last minute and got his graduate certificate.
Rushdie cites the Greek term, 'Hubris'. Hubris means Self Excessive pride which makes the god angry and those people who kept hubris in ancient Greek myth; they were condemned by the god. But he wanted to take hubris, he wanted to defy the gods by respecting himself. He requests the Bard students not to lose their identity at any cost. If the god becomes unhappy by respecting ourselves, that time also, we should keep on respecting self. In this way, he taught students value of self-respect and self-rule. He also showed many negative qualities of gods and appealed them not to lose any time their self respect even in the name of gods and goddess. He showed negative ideas of theirs wants us not to keep fear upon them to get our freedom and self-respect. So, Rushdie says that rule of men and women are good though they may have many mistakes.
2.INTERPRETATION :
From this autobiographical essay, Rushdie is trying to say us that we should not lose our self-respect, honour and individuality. He requests the bard students if the god becomes angry in such our activities, that time too, we should keep our self-respect. He says us that to defy any body to preserve our self honour is our right. He places humankind in centre and says that this world is made by men and women or male and female. So we should walk from our conscience. We are ourselves master and slaves. We have nothing to do with the gods. So, we should challenge the gods to respect ourselves. At any cost, we should not bow down our head in front of the god.
3.CRITICAL THINKING :
There are many issues which I found unconvincing in my critical reading. Can human being defy the god to save his or her self-respect? Can we challenge the government? Should not we have our personal desire, freedom to run society? Is not Rushdie atheist ? If he advocates in this way, then why did he change his brown shoes and bow down his head in front of vice chancellor on convocation day in Cambridge university ? So, in my opinion, preaching is good but it is quite difficult to apply in our practical life.
4.ASSIMILATION :
After reading this essay, I understood the virtue individuality and respecting our freedom. However, human being is a social animal, so he/she moves on according to the norms and regulation of society. So, his theory can not be applied fully. If all the people following is norms walk, in the society, there appears social anarchy and chaos. In this regard, human should take self- respect according to the situation but it is impossible to carry on each and every time.
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SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERS
Q.1.Despite his scathing criticism of Cambridge and himself, is Rushdie bitter or grateful for the education he received at Cambridge? Please support your answer with specific passages from the text.
ANSWER : For Rushdie, freedom is everything. He did not want to lose his self- respect and honour at any cost. He studied hard for three year to get the certificate of bachelor. He got the certificate from Cambridge; however, he was not grateful to the manner of Cambridge. He was very much sarcastic against the way of taking degree. Although he was innocent and his many things were damaged by his unknown friend few days ago of commencement day, for that misdeed he was accused and he would get degree if he paid the fine to the Cambridge administration. Similarly, he did not want to bow down his head to get the degree for which he was himself responsible. But he was compelled to bow down in front of vice chancellor because it was the tradition of Cambridge. Actually, he was happy with having degree of Cambridge but he was completely unhappy with tradition and mal treatment of Cambridge because it had forced him to leave his self respect, honour, and self esteem. That's why, he was very angry on those behaviours.Q.2. What does Rushdie mean, when he says that "defiance is an inevitable and essential aspect of what we call freedom? "Do you agree with him? Have you ever defied anyone? If so, please recount that specific episode from your life.
ANSWER : Rushdie says that defiance is an inevitable and essential aspect of freedom. If we accept domination, oppression, suppression, repression, we will be like a slave. A slave who has not any freedom and has to obey what the master forces him/her to do. In such puppet conditions, we cannot hope for freedom. If we want to get freedom, we should challenge, protest and oppose against wrong and falsehood things. We should not ever compromise on those things which our mind find wrong. We should not lose our self esteem if we want to get freedom. In this regard challenge and protest are essential thing to get freedom.of courses in my past life, I defied with my math teacher. I was poor in math and one day, he warned us that if we did not tell him all the formulas of algebra, he would send us toilet to clean. He started asking one by one. Now my turn came and I could not tell him the formula of a2-b2, then he forced me to take toilet but I sternly warned him if he forced me in this way, I would complain our headmaster. Hearing my warning, he got frighten. After that I and my friends felt a little bit easy in his class.
Q.3.Rushdie says that the college of Cambridge pride themselves on the "ancient tradition of fairness and justice." Does he mean what he says or Is he being sarcastic: Please explain your answer.
ANSWER : Rushdie says that the colleges of Cambridge pride themselves, on the "ancient tradition of fairness and justice. Through his 1996 commencement speech, he remembered his past hardship while he was studying in Cambridge University. A few days before his graduation, his room was redecorated by his unknown friends. His room's many things like record player, cloths etc are damaged by throwing a bucketful of the gravy and onions. Later on, college administration accused him of damaging the room. Then he was forced to pay compensation of the room. If he had not paid, he would not have obtained the degree of graduation.In fact, he is very much sarcastic with mal-treatment of college administration. Without his fault, he was accused of that mess. Although he was innocent, he had to pay fine for that muck spreading. The college administration did not bother to find out real offender. Similarly, he had done great labor for three years to get the degree, but he had to bow down his head in front of the old vice-chancellor. It means that he had to respect for unnecessary man for his own effort to get the degree. In this way, he satirises the tradition of Cambridge through his speech.
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