The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch Analysis

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

Many people can relate to his personal battle with cancer and his dedication to cancer research. His speech was full of emotion. He gave examples of his anguish during a seven-day stay before the awards ceremony, explaining his liver complications, kidney failure, and multiple surgeries. This provided the audience with real life experiences to understand the depth of what this award stands for.

In his book Working, Studs Terkel interviews a prostitute named Roberta Victor. During her interview, Victor describes how she became a prostitute and the variety of people she encountered while engaging in sexual activity in exchange for money. During the middle of the interview, Victor states, “A hustler is any woman in American society. I was the kind of hustler who received money for favors granted rather than the type of hustler who signs a lifetime contract for her trick. Or the kind of hustler who carefully reads women’s magazines and learns what is proper to give for each date, depending on how much money her date or trick spends on her” (Terkel 57). Later she states, “What I did was no different from what ninety-nine

“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.

Dr. Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science at Carnegie-Mellon University who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, educated me with his powerful inspirational message. Dr. Randy Pausch, 47 years old man who has terminal cancer with a life expectancy of a few months gave me a life lesson. He thought me how to achieve dreams also how to face death. Being diagnosed with any kinds of cancer is devastating and despairing, but for him it was opposite; he was happy and cognitively healthy during his final lecture at Carnegie-Mellon University. He even said, “If I don 't seem as depressed or morosed as I should be, sorry to disappoint you” (Video) and continued lecturing. He hadn’t show any sadness or depression during his lecture

Pausch talks about going after dreams we had when we were young. His advice reminds me to hold onto those dreams and work to make them real. Even if they seem hard to reach, Pausch's words bring hope and a push to keep trying. Pausch talks about time and how we use it. His words wake me up and make me think about my own choices.

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.

Lesley Choyce’s The Book Of Michael illustrates that it is important to move on from hardships that occurred in our past. Michael decided to move on from his girlfriend’s murder, and instead of mourning, he decided to go back to school and do something with his life. “I had nothing to lose. I had already lost it all. I was free. Strangely enough, my parents tried to stop me. They thought I had lost my mind. ‘Why today?’ my dad asked. ‘What do I have to lose?’ was my answer.” (Choyce 147-148) This quotation tells us that Michael wanted to go back to school and start a new life again. He keeps repeating that he has nothing to lose, which shows us that he is starting from scratch again and has nothing that he can possibly lose. In addition, Michael

Imagine an elderly man, dying from a grueling disease known as ALS that makes it painful to breathe, unable to walk or stand, and eventually, unable to swallow food. With little money and time left to live he still seems like the happiest man around as he had his family and friends near him at the end with some of life's greatest lessons to teach. Well what if that man was real, and that man’s name was Morrie Schwartz? Morrie Schwartz was a college professor who had retired and then was diagnosed with ALS. An old student of his, Mitch Albom, saw him on TV and decided to visit his old professor on a Tuesday. Pretty soon one Tuesday turned into another, and eventually that turned into 14 Tuesdays until Morrie’s death. During those visits,

“’So what’s your story?’” she then then replies “’I already told you my story. I was diagnosed when-‘” He interrupts and says “’No, not your cancer story. Your story. Interests, hobbies, passions, etcetera… Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who becomes their disease. I know so many people like that. It’s disheartening. Like cancer is in the growth business, right? The taking-people-over business. But surely you haven’t let it succeed prematurely’” (Green, 32).

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.

On his final day as a teacher, the despairing Mr. Holland is led to the school auditorium, where his professional life is surprisingly redeemed. Hearing that their beloved

The Last Lecture is a small book, only a mere 206 pages, split up into six parts, with chapters that span from 3-5 pages. Rather than working off of one main story or memories for the entire book, the author wrote various parts with different themes to each part. As for the chapters in those parts, the author provides different anecdotes from his childhood/adulthood that relate to the main idea of the part. For example, in part three, “Adventures ... And Lessons Learned,” the author provides an instance where he intentionally spilled soda in his clean convertible car while a trip with his niece and nephew. He wanted to show then that it is okay to make messes or mistakes. The second lesson he wanted to show them is, people are far more important

The children took care of him when the parents were busy and were very fond of Tets. I was sad that the father had passed away right before Christmas, I felt sorry for them. I felt the same pain as I’m sure they felt, when they unexpectedly lost their father. My aunt died unexpectedly one day, and our family has never been the same since. I’m sure that’s how it was for them.

Throughout the entirety of his memoir, Randy Pausch, a man dying of pancreatic cancer, is extremely upbeat and positive. He never pretends that his illness isn’t there, but also never dwells on the fact that it is. His doctor sums this attitude up perfectly by calling him “his poster boy for ‘the healthy balance between optimism and realism’ ” (Pausch 183). Being able to have a positive attitude is the most prominent and, to me, the most important lesson that The Last Lecture teaches. Randy’s understanding of optimism vs. pessimism comes simply from the childhood story, Winnie the Pooh: ”Each of us must decide: Am I a fun-loving Tigger or am I a sad-sack Eeyore?” (Pausch 180). Randy is clearly a Tigger, and I can very easily identify with that part of him. I am often too optimistic, to the point where I can be perceived as slightly obnoxious. But I’ve always lived by the “fake it ‘till you make it” idiom, meaning that when I truly feel bad about a situation I’m in, I can make myself feel better just by acting like things are okay. This doesn’t mean I am blind to real problems, I just do what I can to make them easier to deal with. I believe that Randy had similar beliefs regarding his cancer, as his “...personal take on optimism is that as a mental state, it can enable you to do tangible things to improve your physical state” (Pausch 183). All of the other ideals that Dr. Pausch lived by are important, but I think that his positivity is truly what enabled him to achieve his dreams and live a full