Aspects of Voice in "On the Importance of Kindness"

In George Saunder's "On the Importance of Kindness" There are many themes and messages that George conveys about a girl in 7th grade that stood out from everyone else with ladybug glasses or 'grandma' glasses and was insulted for chewing on her hair and eventually moved out. I'm going to focus on some aspects of voice that Saunders employed.

During the video, Saunders employs certain techniques of narrative that influence his story-telling. The audience is listening to Saunder's voice while examining constellations of stars that form pictures of certain details that is associated with Saunder's story. Looking at the pictures make you think how beautiful it can be to look up at the sky during the nighttime and try to connect the dots. It is unusual but yet very creative that in the middle of the video he all of a seems to end the story he was telling with the word fin, but then comes back and explain the good that came out from the story. Plus, there were lines of dialogue that went around one whole idea, such as this line of dialogue, "What I regret most in my life, is failures of kindness," This line brings together what the point of the story was about.

Saunders also exhibits perceptivity within his story. He closely payed attention to the girl, as describing her as, "She had a habit of taking a strand of hair in her mouth and chewing on it," He always saw that she did this when she was nervous, like when somebody was making fun of her. Among other things, he noticed that this girl tried to stay as secluded from other people as much as possible. He understands why it was like that. She wouldn't leave her house so that she could avoid all the insults that she would've received. And one other thing that he noticed about her, was that nobody said anything nice about her but him.

Saunders also delivers surprising information through the story. The girl would never leave her house, chew on her hair, be called names such as "How does that hair taste?" and so on. But Saunders never really antagonized her throughout the story and was neutral about her when everyone else didn't like her. The brief pause that follows the end of his story allows you to think for a couples of seconds about the story he told and make your opinions and conclusions about it. And the pictures goes well with the video, like after his story, when stars slowly filled the screen to fill in all the gaps about what his story represents about how important kindness is.