Bono Speech

Question A
I. When Bono spoke to the students at the university of Pennsylvania he gave
a speech that contained three challenges.
The first of the challenges was, What are you doing here? It was a question
asking why you, being the stadium of college graduates, were there at the school. Bono
described the University of Pennsylvania as a marketplace of ideas. It was where all
the students gained and shared their knowledge, Your pockets are full, even if your
parents pockets are empty. The challenge is to decide what to do with all the
information accumulated.
The second of the challenges were, Whats your big idea? This challenge is to
test how far you will go to use your acquired information. What you become and do is
the question Bono asks, using your knowledge.
The third of the challenges was, What are the blind spots of our age? The blind
spots being the issues of the world such as poverty. Bono challenges the graduates what
to do to help or solve the world's problems.

II. In Bonos speech to the University of Pennsylvania there were two

observations made.
The first observation that had an impact on me was the quote from the Book of
Judas, If you want to serve the age, betray it. Bono went on to explain what betraying
the age meant, It means telling secrets of the age and facing the harsher truths. I found
this interesting because it was a different way of thinking about life and its issues. This
saying was about finding the problems in life, and not just to become aware of them but
to overcome them.
The second observation is, Were the first generation that can look at poverty
and disease and say with a straight face, we can be the first to end this... This
statement had an impact on me because it is true. We can be the generation that makes
a change and challenges poverty and disease. We are able to come up with new ideas to
solve the issues, and theres nothing stopping us from doing so.

III. Based on the extract above Bono is both engaging and inspiring in his
address to

the graduating students. He commonly says rhetorical questions and gives inspiring
answers. For example, What does that mean- betraying the age? Well to me betraying
the age means exposing its conceits, its foibles, its phony moral certitudes. He uses
clever language to explain that you must tackle world problems after learning what they
are.
Bono also commonly uses metaphors to motivate the graduate students. Your
pockets are full, even if your parents pockets are empty, and now youve got to figure
what to spend on., describes how all of these students have learnt so much but they
now have to apply this incredible knowledge to the real world. Bono utilises words such
as were and ours, called inclusivity. It builds a connections with the audience and
makes them want to achieve what he is saying, Were the first generation to look
Using words such as we makes the audience pay attention and hear what the speaker is
saying, We might not see the but our children will. It creates a connection between the
speaker and the audience.