Pathos In David Foster Wallace's This Is Water

Writer, David Foster Wallace, in his speech “This is Water” implies that the way schools teach kids to think these days is wrong. this is in result of his opinion on how most people think during their normal day. Explaining that most people only look at their lives, they never think about how other people’s days could be going or how they live their lives. He refers to the point that you should not get mad during traffic with a bunch of big SUVs because “It's not impossible that some of these people in SUVs were in horrible driving accidents in the past, and now find driving so terrifying that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge, heavy, SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive.” He later reviews his points to try and persuade you to change your way of thinking, maybe to keep you from being selfish and thinking of others.

Wallace implements the use of pathos in the beginning of his speech by going on and relating himself to the students he's speaking to in his speech by revealing that the liberal arts degree they are about to receive does actually have value because it helps teach you how to think instead of just teaching you certain facts.

He also points out that when he was a student he “never liked hearing this, and you tend to feel a bit insulted by the claim that you needed anybody to teach you how to think.” To interpertate what he says, he meant that most people believe they know what they are doing when it comes to thinking about something and being told you're thinking wrong or someone trying to teach you how to teach my offend someone thinking that they were calling them ignorant or uneducated. But he expands on his point in order to relate to the students by looking at some of their values and desires in their adult lives and this also pertains to

pathos.

Wallace applies ethos in his speech and he does this by using larger more intelligent words to try and show that he knows what he's talking about, He uses these words to also try and show the audience he is speaking as a credible and trustworthy speaker. He uses stories about how some people think and their different viewpoints to theorize his viewpoints on thinking. He goes on to say “the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people.” He uses these points to not only improve and show his views but to show he can back them up.

Wallace demonstrates logos by keeping the point she makes completely clear and reasonable. He also supports both sides of his points. For example he goes to talk about the two different viewpoints some people could have. He uses a grocery store to show these examples by suggesting “you can look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made lady who screamed at her child in the checkout line, maybe she's not usually like this; maybe she's been up three nights holding hands with her husband who's dying of bone cancer, or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk who just helped your spouse resolve a nightmarish red-tape problem through some act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it's also not impossible.” He's trying to imply that most people will just think that woman is normally like that and people almost never consider the best in people. He uses both sides of people's views on others in their daily lives to do this which supports his clear and logical opinions.

David Foster Wallace in his speech “This is Water” shows how the way schools teach you isn't exactly correct. Throughout the speech he explains the ways some people should think and uses many examples to show this.