The Last Lecture Randy Pausch Analysis

“Hypothetically, if you knew you were going to die and you had one last lecture, what would you say to your students?” That is how Professor Randy Pausch, from Carnegie Mellon, began his last lecture, a speech entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” while in fact he was dying of Pancreatic Cancer. He knew he only had months left to live and put together this last lecture to read to his students. His lecture focuses in on points such as the importance of: making sincere apologies, not whining, being gracious and being humble. To stress his thoughts and views on life and following one’s dreams, Randy Pausch used a great amount of repetition, metaphors, allusion, humor, ethos, and pathos in his last lecture.

In Randy Pausch 's "Last Lecture," Randy discusses how he achieved all of his childhood dreams throughout his life and how he helped others achieve their dreams. Often times, childhood dreams are forgotten due to life stressors, other opportunities and interests that come along and, ultimately, believing that those childhood dreams are unachievable. However, this was not the case for Randy Pausch. Randy created a list of things that he desired to experience throughout his lifetime, and through persistency, acceptance and some modification, he was able to complete his list. Similar to many children 's "being an astronaut" dream, Randy had a couple dreams that seemed impossible. These seemingly impossible dreams on Randy 's list included: "being in zero gravity," "playing in the NFL," and "being Captain Kirk." While Randy never received the opportunity to play football for the NFL, his understanding and lessons learned from his football experiences made up for this shortcoming. Nonetheless, Randy was able to conquer all of his other dreams. With each dream Randy discusses, he explains each "brick wall" he hit along his way and what he did to get around these walls.

You would think a man dying of cancer would not be so happy and willing to spend the last few months of his life giving a lecture. But, Randy Pausch, who has 10 tumors in his liver, does not want people to pity him for having cancer. Rather, he wants to teach people how to follow their childhood dreams. Looking at the seven elements of communication we see how he is so effective in his last lecture.

Robert Waldinger´s purpose is to share the lessons he has learned on what makes a happier and more fulfilling lifestyle. Most people believe that the key to a more gratifying life could only come from materialistic items and fame. However, Waldinger attempts to refute this claim by sharing the results that he has gathered from conducting a 75 year old study on happiness.

What would you do if you had limited time left to live? Many people take life for granted but when their life is suddenly compressed into a matter of weeks left, they soon realize the beauty of life and how they lived it. In response to his restricted time left caused by pancreatic cancer, writer Randy Pausch argues that life should be lived to the fullest in his book The Last Lecture.He effectively builds his claim through the use of pathos, allusions to literature, and metaphors.

Nowadays, it seems that we are too busy making a living that we tend to forget how to make a meaningful life. We are all dreaming of some magical things will happen instead of enjoying a beautiful little thing happens around us. The main thing is we don’t know if we will wake up tomorrow when we go to sleep tonight. Therefore, rather than hardly put off a living, reminds ourselves to enjoy every minute of our live as if it is the last minute. Denise Levertov, the author of the poem “Living”, illustrates the philosophy of living a simple life is to live entirely in the present without thinking about what will happen next in the future. The reason for that philosophy is because happiness is not what you have but how you feel toward what you have and how you accept it.

A seminar series titled “The Last Lecture” took place at Carnegie Mellon University. Professors were prompted to deliver lectures as if it was their last, while containing a “message of a lifetime”. Professor Randy Pausch delivered his speech titled “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” as a part of this seminar on September 18th, 2007, a time in which had just been given life-threatening news. It had recently been estimated by doctors that this was the last three to six months of his life. Instead of speaking as if he was hypothetically dying like his fellow professors, Pausch was in an extremely ironic situation, as for in his case he really was dying, of pancreatic

Making everyday count shapes life’s journey by helping you gain a positive outlook and making life more enjoyable. If you make the conscious decision to live your life to the fullest, you will find that by working hard and remaining positive, life will seem better. In The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, the author emphasizes the importance of making everyday count and working hard to achieve your dreams, because you never know when your life can be taken from you. After Pausch was diagnosed with life terminating cancer, he made the decision to remain positive and write a final lecture about achieving your dreams and embracing life instead of letting his prognosis negatively affect him. In The Last Lecture, Pausch shares how he was able to make

Randy Pausch had many stories that anyone would love to hear. Every story that he would tell gave a lesson to the audience. One story that Mr. Pausch talked about was when he was pulled over for speeding and the cop asked him what brought him to Virginia (since Mr. Pausch had a Pennsylvania drivers license.) Mr. Pausch replied “Since you’ve asked, I have terminal cancer. I have just months to live. We’ve moved

At the beginning of this semester, I would never have imagined that a book I was being forced to read for a Dual Credit English course would end up meaning so much to me, or touch me in the way that it did. Reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch touched my heart in more ways than just one and opened my mind to many new ideas. In this book, Randy finds out he is dying of cancer, and his whole world is flipped around. He comes to the realization that his time on Earth in finite and coming to a close. Randy became determined to use his last bit of time he had alive on Earth in a positive way and in a way that would leave a positive impact behind for his family, friends, coworkers and everyone in between.

The book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch had a lot of inspiration and intelligence to offer. This book is about more than just a dying man. It teaches the importance of overcoming obstacles, following your childhood dreams and taking advantage of the great moments life has to offer. I learned a lot and plan to apply it to my life.

While it may be hard to initially provoke the thoughts regarding happiness and enlightenment, those thoughts tend to stay imprinted to the brain because ‘when you realize you are going to die, you see everything differently” (Albom 83). Morrie views life as opportunity during his dying days. Rather than obsessing over everything he didn’t do, he shares what he did and how life should be lived. He believed in the saying “tension of opposites” and after considering the concept, I’ve found that to me, living life in accordance to the tension of opposites is living where life pulls you forward and back.

Living a joyous life and having fun with everything you do from work, family, and recreation is vital. If you are enjoying life then the people around you will get joy from it as well, your work will improve, and your family will have a better life. Enjoying your life, and always keeping that youthful flame lit is what drives us to live. Pausch stated, “No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse. At the same time, it is often within your power to make them better.”

In 2006, Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and later on he discovered he only had “three months of good health.” In that time, he contemplated ways of leaving a message to his kids when they grow up. Pausch decided to dedicate his final months on giving a “last lecture” at Carnegie Mellon called, “The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” After two years after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Randy Pausch passed away on July 25, 2008.

The world seems to be a dark and unforgiving place, but happiness is hidden within. It is found in a beautiful view, an uplifting song, or a compliment from a friend. According to the Ted Talk video, The Habits of Happiness, Matthieu Ricard claims that everyone “has a deep, profound desire for well-being or happiness”(Ricard 2:39). Ricard uses the three techniques of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to captivate and move his audience. With the use of metaphors, personal experiences, and even graphs Matthieu explained to his audience the full force and perception of the bendable word that is happiness. This Ted Talk dove into philosophical meaning on just how to achieve well-being, without having everything in the world.