In today’s society, one of the most natural human traits is selfishness. David Foster Wallace incorporated this idea in his commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005. Wallace aims to persuade his audience that, “the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about.” Although the intended audience of his speech is the graduates and staff, along with their friends and family, the piece has become quite popular since its delivery. Wallace offers, “nothing less than the truth” and captivates the listeners with his complete honestly. His personal tone lets the audience feel like they are a part of the conversation, rather than just receiving it. Wallace successfully conveys his message that society is blind to the world around them through the use of logic, humility and emotional appeals. 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... ... middle of paper ... ...ow the audience to visualize the event and becomes more relatable. Listeners are able to emotionally identify with the situation and reflect in order to give other the benefit of the doubt. The speech could be improved with more facts or statistics. Wallace uses rhetorical devices to create his argument, which could be seen as ironic due to his death. He attempted to influence others but struggled with an everyday battle that he could not overcome. His approach to life is understood, but maintaining that approach proves to be difficult. Through the use of dramatization and figurative language, Wallace is able to appeal the audience and leave them with the idea that, “It is about simple awareness—awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: ‘This is water, this is water’”.
In 2005, David Wallace Foster delivered a memorable commencement speech to the graduating class of Kenyon College. It was not the standard US commencement speech with “the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories” which then turn out to be “one of the better, less bullshitty conventions of the genre”. By using pathos , Foster created an intelligent argument that wasn't overpowering but thoughtful and understanding. The argument made by Foster in his speech is about the capital-T Truth. And to Foster, the capital-T Truth is about life before death. The point of Fosters speech is to expose the importance of education, the value it possesses and the awareness it brings. Its modest amount parables, proverbs and cliches revealed the honesty behind his words and ugly truths that caused a stir the audience. Wallace Foster stripped away the standardness of such monotone and basic writing of commencement speeches to his advantage. By using pathos he builds bridges, sustains his arguments and emotionally influences his audience.
Part I: Reasoning in the Inaugural Address. President Roosevelt in his inaugural speech first realized the importance of his presidency, the speech and the US. He mentioned that the thing the US nation needs to fear is the fear itself. He further mentioned it as unreasoning, nameless and unjustified terror which constraints and paralyzes the efforts needed to make a retreat (Davis, 2014).
William Faulkner overwhelms his audience with the visual perceptions that the characters experience, making the reader feel utterly attached to nature and using imagery how a human out of despair can make accusations. "If I jump off the porch I will be where the fish was, and it all cut up into a not-fish now. I can hear the bed and her face and them and I can...
“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).
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.
...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.
Booker T. Washington emphasizes that the significance of industrial prosperity is more momentous than having a social equal for the black race.
... pedagogical arguments, such as teaching a person how to critically think, to ignore the ethics of their dogma and focus on superficial emotional appeals and easily understood logical appeals. By ignoring ethics in pedagogical arguments, the argument becomes less about teaching and more about explaining a certain viewpoint, focussing less on whether this is the right viewpoint and more on the author’s personal reasons supporting it. Second, in This is Water specifically, analysing this speech causes the writer to not only become a critical thinker like Wallace wanted, but also extend Wallace’s arguments in directions that he failed to properly explore, like activism.
One of his intriguing skills as a writer is his ability to intertwine narration and analysis in his essays. James Baldwin mixes narration and analysis in his essays so well that coherence is never broken, and the subconscious is so tempted to agree with and relate to what he says, that if you don’t pay close attention, one will find himself agreeing with Baldwin, when he wasn’t even aware Baldwin was making a point. Physical placement of analytical arguments and analytical transitions, frequency and size of analytical arguments, and the language used within the analytical arguments are the keys to Baldwin’s graceful persuasion. Throughout this essay, I will be using Baldwin’s “Notes of a Native Son” as an example. “Notes of a Native Son” is an essay that Baldwin wrote which focuses primarily on his life around the time his father died, which also happens to be the same time his youngest brother was born.
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
In this essay I am going to compare the similarities and differences between the Terry Eagleton book and the David Wallace’s commencement address. This articles both different and aimed at a different audience, offers an interesting similarity in some aspects and differences in other to one another. The main ideas that we will be looking at are how love and happiness conflict with one another; and how we need to learn what to worship through the meaning of experiences. Then I will relate these concepts to my personal thoughts of how these concepts can be interpreted.
The more I analyze Wallace’s speech I fall more in love with the concept of this is water and feel deeply connected to him as he gives this commencement speech. There is a reason that this speech has an effect on me as well as many of the listeners of this speech. David Foster Wallace’s speech structure and the overall purpose help convey his messages in such a way that ties himself with the students, almost as if he steps out if his shoes and into the shoes of the graduates. Wallace beautifully focuses his central argument around the idea of selfishness that we are all hard wired with – “There is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute center of. The world as you experience it is in front of YOU, or behind YOU, to the left and right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on” (Paragraph 9). During this portion of the speech his vocal tone changes and his use of enthymemes help his audience realize that this issue of selfishness is strictly our problem and how we must correct that is through “self awareness”. I believe that the tone of the entire speech is vital to understand if one wants to take in Wallace’s ideas and further practice them. I argue that many humans learn through repetition thus Wallace, in his speech, emphasizes his
He also knew how to channel his desire for freedom, linking the future of the Berliners to the fate of the United States and the free world. He knew how to align the Berliners with American interests in a common cause of the struggle for freedom, the fight against communism, and above all, he knew how to attribute historical meaning and purpose to his difficulties, hardships and sacrifices. On the other hand, it is necessary to mention that along the whole speech he never mentions the concepts of capitalism or capitalist. The reason why he does not mention is that he would recognize that it is a society based on the accumulation of wealth and selfishness. For this reason, it should be understood as referring to this production system. When
This is seen as nonconventional and a tad mocking to the traditional commencement speeches in the sense that most speeches don 't refer to the clichés of a commencement speeches as Wallace does. Wallace mentions that the most prevalent cliché for the genre is to give more meaning to their degree than just a money maker. What is notable is that Wallace tries to not insult them over the fact that someone needed to teach them how to think, but rather of what to think about. He wants the graduates to understand that they have a choice in what to think about. This is reinforced with yet another didactic story about two men in a Alaskan Bar. The two men are arguing over the existence of god, and the Atheist mentions that he has played with the god thing, when he got stuck in a blizzard. He prayed to god for help and some Eskimos came across him and showed him the way back to camp. The atheist is so sure that it had nothing to deal with god. This story shows that by choosing to stay closed minded, the Atheist isn 't really open to the possible reasons for it. He isn 't choosing what to think about because it is so natural to him in what he believes and sees. This seeps into Wallace next main point. We all have a default setting as pointed out by Wallace. This is unusual from a traditional speech because in regards
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.