David Foster Wallace Reflection
Many commencement speeches are inspiring and speak to all that graduating students that are stepping into adulthood. David Foster Wallace speech focused on the life ahead of the students, who will be day in and day out in days filled with boredom, harsh frustrations and the same routine of daily life. When I first read the quote, it showed a story behind the commencement speech. The quote speaks to the autopilot lives that we are living, where we are unknowingly tangled in a rat race that keep us from paying attention to what is most meaningful in our everyday lives.
Going back to this quotation, I feel like it has a lot more meaning than I had first thought when I read it in the beginning of the semester. I
“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).
To regard the importance of the bigger picture, he maintains parallel structure and utilizes the repetition of words in the body of the speech. “The fulfilling life, the distinctive life, the relevant life” occurs when one seizes the day—when one finds the joys in life by realizing “you are not special”. The pauses and short sentences also adds to the conversational aspect and pace of the commencement piece. To continue, he notes how in this moment of time, every single one of them is dressed “exactly the same” and their diplomas are “exactly the same”. The unification of these prospective seniors further augments the message of settling. McCullogh further critiques the phrases that defy logic. High school students have perceived that “good is no longer good enough, where a B is the new C”. The goal into doing one’s best has been shaped into doing the capabilities of another, in which McCullogh responds metaphorically to only focus on the betterment of the self: “climb [the mountain] so you can see the world, not so the world can see you”. All of these seniors have fallen into the preconceived mindset of superiority, unifying them together but it is their personal capabilities that distinguishes one from another, successes from failures. The support and inspiration he is aiming for is clearly portrayed in proposing to the students to, “[d]ream big. Work hard. Think for yourself”. He inspires them to experience life instead of accomplish
1) Eisenhower served as the President of the United States for a period of eight years. On January 17, 1961 he gave a memorable farewell speech which was broadcast on TV. The speech is known for the vision of Eisenhower who predicted the strong influence that military-industrial complex will be created on the citizens of the United States in future. His speech narrates his fears on the massive spending, concerns on planning and deficit spending. He is concerned for the Federal funding that might be more towards the technological and scientific developments.
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 quote has a significant meaning to me because of one main reason. That reason is
“Climb on one’s back and stand on their shoulders to reach the top” this is what the Coronel Colin Powell hints to recent graduate from the Howard University in 1994. The Commencement Speech was long enough to motivate the graduating students. Also, it was proper and formal. When the speech began, Powell was exciting 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).
Nationwide, it is known that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the one to serve the longest time that any President has ever done so before and he was great at what he accomplished. Roosevelt was like a “grandparent” to the American people with the way that he would speak to them, acknowledge them, and explain what was going on in the world to them (Franklin, American). Each time that Franklin was elected, he had to give the nation an inaugural speech, each president does. However, his second, third, and fourth speeches all related to the topic of what he was going to change in his upcoming presidency compared to the courses of action he had taken in previous events. Within his Second Inaugural Speech, Franklin D. Roosevelt describes to the American
John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered one of the most important American speeches after being sworn in as president on January 20, 1961. His inauguration speech was so influential that it seized the nation’s attention, and quotes from it are still clearly remembered by people today. It is considered one of the best speeches ever written and ever delivered. It presents a strong appeal to pathos, ethos, and logos and accomplishes what any speaker strives for – it speaks straight to the heart of the audience and inspires people.
Wallace stresses the idea that all people really can think about in their day to day lives is themselves. To explain this Wallace uses the story of people in rush-hour trying to shop at the grocery store and getting aggravated when there aren’t enough registers open to check out their purchases. He uses this example to describe how people make themselves the center of the universe and how their own needs should be met before anyone else’s own. Wallace is trying to describe how higher education helps people think more clearly, and how the knowledge obtained also helps to make your mind more capable of evaluating situations and how they affect more than just one’s own
Of the many truly inspirational speeches given by African Americans, Booker T. Washington’s The Atlanta Exposition Address is one of the few that intends to achieve compromise. In his speech, Washington is trying to persuade an audience composed significantly of white men to support African Americans by granting them jobs and presenting them with opportunities. His goal is to convince his white audience that African Americans will be supplied with jobs lower than those of white men, allowing white men always to be on top. Booker T. Washington’s The Atlanta Exposition Address adopts a tone of acquiescence and compromise to persuade a predominantly white audience to accept his terms.
The "Emancipation Proclamation" speech was actually intended for most of the people that would free the slaves, not to the slaves. According to Rollyson the proclamation was not intended for the slave, blacks, or former slaves. The “Emancipation Proclamation” speech was during the Antislavery Movement or what some people call it the Abolitionist Movement, during the 1960's. The main leaders of the abolitionist movement were Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas. The point of Lincoln writing the speech about emancipating the slaves was to free the slaves and win the civil war. Lincoln had written a speech named "The Emancipation Proclamation". He wrote this speech and signed it in January of 1863, in Washington, D.C. The theme of the speech was to teach everyone that everyone, no matter what race should be treated equally. In the "Emancipation Proclamation" speech, Abraham Lincoln motivates his intended audience during the Antislavery movement by using pathos and rhetorical question.
“The world might improve if we deliberately and systematically selected students not only for their knowledge and analytical skills, but also for their creative and practical skills – and their wisdom.” (Sternberg, 2010). This quote is something that I truly and deeply
When president Barack Obama first walked on the biggest stage in America eight years ago a lot of Americans did not trust his words of wisdom to carry, we the people to a better United States. On January 10, 2017 President Barack Obama walked back on that same big stage now known and loved by so many to give his last and final speech, his Farewell speech. All of the non believers were certainly awoken to the actions that were taken by president Barack Obama to achieve most of what he truly dedicated his life and career to. Obama worked hard to gain the love, respect and dedication by so many loyal americans today. It definitely was not an easy task to achieve, many trials and many errors. In this analysis I will state weather or not Obama’s
The quote entailed that everyone is a student and teacher. It further highlighted the attitude a professor I have this semester has as he teaches; an attitude instilled with passion and happiness. In this subject the professor successfully directs his passion onto myself and other students. He displays that there is more to teaching and learning than a required curriculum and tests – it is sharing, guiding, clarifying, providing, assisting, and caring. Caring about, not the subject, but capturing ones’ mind - within this chaotic, highly structured world and allowing it to break free through this “medium” called teaching. Whether it be Statistics, Imperial Russian History, Animal Behavior, or philosophy – showing students that through any of these there is more to a subject than a grade, a topic; there is perspective and knowledge and the ability for ones individuality to grow and gain from