Winning the Rat Race
“There happens to be whole, large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine and petty frustration” (Wallace 2005). This is what David Wallace in his 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address This Is Water refers to as the day in and day out of every day adult life. Wallace breaks the mold of commencement speeches with his nontraditional way of telling graduates the truth about adult life and what it means to learn how to think. In his speech “This is Water” David Wallace states that he believes we should change the way we think about things and become more outwardly aware of the world and that this is the true definition of learning how to think.
Wallace starts his speech with the parable of the fish with the “moral” being that “the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about” (Wallace 2005).
The origin of things like religion, and personal beliefs are ignored and thought to be hardwired like height because they are too hard to understand. To understand what someone else thinks or feels we, as humans, would have to be a little less arrogant and as David Wallace points out change how we experience things.
Essential to most commencement speeches is the topic of the value of a liberal arts education. We’re not taught what to think but how to think, and Wallace says that this cliché is true. However it is not “the capacity to think but rather a choice of what to think about” (Wallace 2005). Wallace suggests that we need to be aware of what’s going on around us and choose what we pay attention. He gives the example of the average adult work day and the tediousness that causes frustration be...
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... time thinking about OUR wants and how long the wait is but spend the time being happy with what we have because others may not have the same pleasures. Wallace’s idea of not getting caught up in our default setting is true. We shouldn’t make things about ourselves but make everything about what we can do for others.
A degree is just a material payoff for the hard work and effort put in overtime at college. The true payoff is this idea to learn to think, to be able to control what we see and how we feel and what we derive from it. We must stay aware of our daily surroundings and not just focus on the ME, ME, ME but also consider other people and how we may be effecting them. Wallace reminds us that it is a struggle to stay conscious and alive, but if we do so we are exercising our freedom of knowledge. That is the true meaning of an education, simply being aware.
The importance of attending an institute of higher learning continues to grow as the job market becomes more competitive, and a diploma is essentially required to compete in it. However, with the growing demand for college and university successful students the concept of education has become clouded. In two commencement speeches, one by David Sedaris and the other by David Wallace, this concept of what education means and how it is viewed by the individual student is discussed as well as the process of thinking. David Seders, in his speech What I Learned, writes in a satirical format based on how education is being viewed. David Wallace in his commencement speech addresses the process of thinking and being self-aware with a college education.
David McCullough Jr., delivered the commencement at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts on June 1st 2012 to staff, the 2012 graduates, and their family and friends. The speech was straightforward and supplied valuable information for their future. . McCullough’s speech at times felt harsh, offensive, and insulting. His words and examples were given to achieve insight, knowledge, and awareness for each student’s future. The commencement expressed a great deal of achievement, but conveyed that there was more work to be done. His speech was effective and appreciated through humor parallelism, repetition, and anaphora. His point of view has obtained respect and determination by all those that have been challenged and have heard his words.
The speech is arranged into short paragraphs, providing an example in almost every one. Everyone is familiar with commencement speeches. They are usually used to congratulate a group of people and tend to be looking towards the future. Instead of congratulating the students at Kenyon College, Wallace challenges them. The essay opens with a metaphor about two young fish that do not realize what water is, setting the tone for the rest of the speech. Wallace proceeds to describe how completely oblivious society is to the world around us, just like the fish. Wallace supports this claim through examples within the speech. His use of examples rather than facts or statistics weakens his claim. If more facts or statistics were used his claim would become more convincing. His rationalization come in the form of the short stories that illustrate the choices people make in their everyday lives. He...
“This is Water” is a commencement speech written for students about to graduate with a Liberal Arts Degree from a prestigious school and seems to be geared more directly to those questioning the validity of their degree. David Foster Wallace explains that the education they received allows the audience to handle the monotony and frustrations of the world better by stepping back and realizing that the individual in the audience are not the center of universe. David’s diverse diction gives this work a strong educated but down to earth feel using the words from “didactic” to “bullshitty”.
Through the use of informal language, forming a connection outside of his target audience, and genuine demeanor, David Foster Wallace’s “The Is Water” successfully delivers his message to his target audience. Kenyon College is a private liberal arts university in Gambier, OH with enrollment listed on their website just short of 2,000 students. Tuition and fees total to about just Through informal language, presenting relatable experiences, and presenting himself in an honest form, his speech becomes more engaging and his audience more receptive to his message. Wallace urges the graduating students to hold the value of their education in high regard and make proper use of it when thinking critically (Wallace 2). While Wallace’s warning targeted the graduating class, his speech can be viewed to be just as effective to the other individuals in attendance, which would include the parents/families of graduates and the university faculty and staff in attendance.
...old, xenophobic white men don’t want just anyone off the street joining them for intellectual discussions over Sunday tea . This is why Wallace advocates for students in high school and college to learn SWE; if students are able to present themselves in a more erudite and intellectual manner by using SWE, it can provide them with more opportunities to ascend the “social ladder” as they will have a stronger foundation for academic and professional success. Using SWE will not guarantee that a student will become a doctor or a lawyer, however, they will have the opportunity to expand their education and achieve that ranking if they wish.
“Climb on one’s back and stand on their shoulders to reach the top” this is what the Coronel Colin Powell hints to recent graduating students from the Howard University in 1994. The Commencement Speech was long enough to motivate the graduating students. In addition, it was proper and formal. When the speech began, Powell was excited by ending on sharing his own experiences and giving great advices for those future professionals. Powell´s Commencement Speech demonstrates his interest by sharing his thoughts, and its language was uplifting and captivating. (502).
In addition, the writer of “The Benefits of a College Degree” wrote that”One of the most important and obvious reasons to earn a college degree is to increase your earning potential”(“The Benefits”). While it is true that college is indubitably expensive, the years of learning a particular trade or skill for the future of career of these students is important and worth the cost. Also, students can apply for a variety of scholarships for different amounts of money to help pay for college and lower the amount of debt caused by schooling. Furthermore, multiple students believe that a college education is not needed for their future and that they can get good paying jobs without it. This philosophy does not apply to any good paying careers with the exception of the military and some construction jobs. The good paying jobs require at least a bachelor’s degree in many cases, except for a few that require an
The philosopher is presenting complex image with many aspects to illustrate relatively simple problem which makes his writing appealing only to narrow circle of people usually enough educated to find an absolute truth by themselves. His style is too complicated to be appropriate for masses; complicated vocabulary and syntax that is not used anymore. Plato’s relating to the real problem right in the end of his work giving no time to think about it throughout his argument. Basically what he is doing is explaining the problem and then presenting it. In the end he just leaves the reader all alone without further explanation. David Foster Wallace has also tried to convince people that there is something more to the world that can be seen. However, Wallace’s Commencement Speech is very different from Plato’s allegory. I his speech Wallace is presenting his ideas in a simple manner by short stories that anyone can relate to and because of this it makes him more convincing and persuasive. Right in the beginning of the speech he relates to the main topic by story about fishes that allows his audience to think about the main problem along his speech. This move is undoubtedly more effective because it lets audience focus and contemplate on what is important, on what relates to the main topic during whole
He acknowledges the fact that his speech is different from other commencement speeches, almost as if he is self-conscious of the fact that his is not like those. We all know the many clichés that come with any motivating speech, and so does Wallace when he states, "Please don’t worry that I 'm getting ready to lecture you about compassion or other-directedness or all the so-called virtues" (Wallace). Wallace wants the graduates to know the truth about life after college, point blank, with no sugar coating like normal commencement
Wallace goes on and tells a story of two men, with different religious beliefs, sitting together in a bar. Both of the men, experience their own encounter with religion but have two different ways of constructing meaning from it. The moral of the story is learning how to think means learning control over how and what you think. Paying attention, will make you more conscious and aware to choose how you construct meaning from experience (Wallace). The story helps demonstrate the importance of thinking for yourself in different surroundings.
It is easy to think college is not worth the cost to become better, but getting educated molds a better person, and creates happier people in the future and occasionally they become better in health (Leonhardt 25 ). Becoming a better and happier person is pleasing for everyone. Even former President Obama says “‘Education helps us be better people. It helps us be better citizens. You came to college to learn about the world and to engage with new ideas and to discover the things you're passionate about -- and maybe have a little fun’” (Procon.org). Learning and engaging in everything is a skill everyone should have, so like he said we should go to college to be able to do that. Additionally, education shows people to develop more intellectual skill and become more responsible (Pew Social and Demographic Trends). Thus said, being educated and smart is something everyone can do and college helps with that. Likewise, college can encourage someone to be more educated and happier. Reaching the point of happier and more educated is worth the cost.
Tagg, John. “Why Learn? What We May Really Be Teaching Students.” About Campus. 2004. Print.
The “Kenyon Commencement Speech,” by David Foster Wallace, explains the intellectual thought process of how people think in the white-collar business’s higher-income lifestyle, while “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” by Mike Rose, depicts how a blue-collar worker develops great cognitive skills through working a lower income job. While these passages have separate settings, in which one shows the life-style of college graduate in commission and the other a simple high school graduate’s career, both give great insight on the proper meaning of intelligence and its overall impact on a worker’s mentality. Many ideas on the opinion of intelligence white-collar and blue-collar jobs require
College education essentially is the key to success in the future. It opens many doors of opportunity and allows us to explore every option available. College education can provide a student with new exciting opportunities that they would never had if they drop out of at high school. I would like to share some of the benefits that furthering your education can provide, and as well as the joy it can bring to each and every one of us.