Analysis

Always on the Side of the Egg Analysis

Claim: The government, known as the system in this speech, needs to be stopped from harming innocent people and the only way to stop it is by the people of Israel to work together since they are the ones that created and started this government.

Audience: suffering people of Israel, people who work in the system such as the mayor of Jerusalem and the President of Israel

Context: Receiving the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual Society for his works-- Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, and the Wind- Up Chronicle. The Gaza War ended about a month before he presented this speech.

Purpose: to inform the reader on their position in the cause of the Gaza War and to also persuade the people to take action against the system and to make it in the way that they want it to be instead of the way it is now

Section 1: Introduction and "Truth lies within us"

Purpose: introduces the conflict in the Gaza, defines what the job of novelist and stories are suppose to be, informs on how novelist must pull the truth out of lies, attempts to persuade the people to change their thinking in following the government they are following now

Effectiveness: very effective because of the choice of words he decides to use and the message he is telling the people just from this first half of the speech

Appeals: uses a lot of ethos by building himself up as a novelist and the job he has and by saying how he had problems with coming but he decided to come anyway, uses minor pathos and logos by talking about the Gaza War

Techniques: uses parallel structure to speak on why he decided to come, uses metaphors to connect the military to animals

Section Two: "I will always stand on the side of the egg"

Purpose: introduces the system as a wall and the people as eggs, persuades the people on how they can be able to overpower the system, talks about stories again to inform the people how they help them in the situation they are in now

Effectiveness: very effective because he uses a powerful quote then goes into explaining it thoroughly and explains to the people how they are able to be more than they are now, also his examples and word choice again makes this part just as effective, if not more, than the first part

Appeals: ethos by talking about his fathers, pathos by telling the people about themselves being eggs and how eggs can be more effecting than a wall, logos by again talking a little about the Gaza War

Techniques: epitaph when he talks about his dead dad and how he understands how it feels for someone to be taken away and also the talk about what he learned from him, paradox because the wall would seem the one to win but the eggs are more powerful than the wall

General Analysis

Haruki Murakami does a wonderful job with this speech. He uses different types of techniques and appeals to captivate the people and empower them to go against the government that is hurting them and not helping them like it should. It is also surprising for him to do such a thing since he isn't from Israel but wants so much for them to be free from this government they have. Also, for him to say this speech in front of the mayor and the president makes it even more surprising. His use of language and his metaphors are very effective in his argument and I feel he does an amazing job with his speech.