Compare and Contast

In the "Morrison Nobel Lecture",  Toni Morrison opens up her her speech by telling a story of an old blind lady. Morrison goes on to relate the characters in her story to the ultimate point of discussion, which is language. Language, in Morrison's viewpoint is not used to represent an event or what is going on. On the other hand, Morrison views language as actually being that event or that action taking place. The speech goes into dept about what language really is. Connections to Morrison's story and her interpretation of language are evident throughout the speech.
In comparison with Morrison's speech, "This Is Water" by David Foster Wallace also opens floor with a story. Wallace's story is basically about two young fish not knowing what water is when an older fish mentions the noun. Wallace, just like Morrison uses a story to convey a message to the readers. The message is that everything has a story behind it. The story might or might not be pretty, but it is up to the person to choose whether or not to acknowledge that story. The fish simply didn't know what water was because the fish simply didn't care.
The difference between Morrison's speech and Wallace's essay is that Wallace puts more personal opinion in the essay than Morrison does in the speech. Wallace writes about what he himself is like as a person. Morrison just speaks about what language means to her.