During a commencement ceremony, David Foster Wallace addresses graduating students with a query of how to think critically, away from their default parameters of thought. The challenge laid by Wallace was to begin learning how to break away from an egocentric method of thought--away from being able to narrowly look at a situation and observe how it may have a personal effect, in preference for a train of thought that looks at “why is this happening and how does it affect everyone involved”? This is supported by multiple analogies that Wallace covers, such as trying to comprehend why someone is driving defensively in an SUV, or why someone is driving recklessly and in a hurry. Wallace goes as far as to reverse the egocentric train of thought
and state that “you may be in their way”. Wallace essentially points out that the mission of a liberal arts study, is to learn how to think of the big picture and not become blind to “worship”, which he defines in this case as becoming so entranced with something that you are biased and therefor, blinded by it. My question is: How does one balance an open mind, while still being able to be passionate about something? How does one worship or admire without being blind?
In 102 Minutes, Chapter 7, authors Dwyer and Flynn use ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to the readers’ consciences, minds and hearts regarding what happened to the people inside the Twin Towers on 9/11. Of particular interest are the following uses of the three appeals.
The tone during the whole plot of in Brave New World changes when advancing throughout the plot, but it often contains a dark and satiric aspect. Since the novel was originally planned to be written as a satire, the tone is ironic and sarcastic. Huxley's sarcastic tone is most noticeable in the conversations between characters. For instance, when the director was educating the students about the past history, he states that "most facts about the past do sound incredible (Huxley 45)." Through the exaggeration of words in the statement of the director, Huxley's sarcastic tone obviously is portrayed. As a result of this, the satirical tone puts the mood to be carefree.
The chapter, Church, has the troop hold up in a church for a few days. In the church, the monks take an immediately likely to the troop help with food and weapon cleaning. A few of the soldiers discuss what they wanted to do before the war. The troops learn more about each other and insight into what faith can be to them.
In the same also different way, the coach in Marshall speech also using pathos when he said “ They don’t know your heart. I do. I’ve seen it. You have shown it to me...You have shown just exactly who you are in here.” This is pathos because the coach bring up how good the team have become. Whether they’re losing or winning, the only thing will matter is no one will have a great heart as the players have. They don’t need to win the championship to show that they’re the best, they just need to show how much passion they have with football to show that they’re the best team. The coach also said: “ When you take that field today, you’ve gotta lay that heart on the line, men. From the souls of your feet, with every ounce of blood you’ve got in your body, lay it on the line until the final.” He doesn’t put pressure on the players that they have to win, he speaked how he feel, he speaked from his heart, he just wanted that when the team take the field today, they just need to put all their effort and passion on the field.
Despite there being hundreds of video game releases every year, most of these games are unoriginal and therefore unplayable. There are countless video game genres, but one of the most popular genres in the past few years have been the zombie games, also called survival games. I was thoroughly convinced that all the games in this genre were clichéd and overdone, until I played the video game The Last of Us. Even though it is a survival game, the focus is not on gruesome zombies or gratuitous violence, making it already vastly different from the others. Instead, the focus is on telling a story. Between the gorgeous graphics, serene music, and flawless acting, it already goes beyond being just another “zombie game,” but this isn’t even accounting
In his essay, “Deciderization; 2007,” David Foster Wallace Argues: Part of our emergency is that it’s so tempting to do this sort of thing now, to retreat to narrow arrogance, pre-formed positions, rigid filter, the ‘moral clarity’ of the immature. The alternative is dealing with massive, high- entropy amounts of info and ambiguity and conflict and flux; its continually discovering new areas of personal ignorance and delusion. In sum, to really try to be informed and literate today is to feel stupid nearly all the time, and to need help. That’s about as clear as I can put it. What Wallace is trying to say that the people of today’s world are either Objective or subjective and nothing in between; therefore, the objective type of people are all
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.
Plato explains, “Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him? (1129).” Since the prisoners are unable to see the outside world they are forced to believe strictly what they can see. Plato describes that the prisoners can only be sure of the objects seen currently and not what they saw before. The prisoners used what they Douglass, like Plato used what he learned to his advantage to learn from the talking of slaveowners. “The moral which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder (430).” The self-centered thoughts of thinking of how he will be able to become free took over his every thought and consumed him to listen in on conversations. In addition, Wallace describes self-centered thoughts in which vehicles are always in his way, but he could never be in their way. For instance, “In this traffic, all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way...Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe.. is trying to get this kid to the hospital, and he 's in a bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am: it is actually I who am in HIS way (7).” Unlike Douglass, Wallace recognized that he was thinking just of himself and not of his surroundings. All of these characters demonstrate that at one point they had self-centered
Elie Weisel once said this: “I know and I speak from experience, that even in the midst of darkness, it is possible to create light and share warmth with one another; that even on the edge of the abyss, it is possible to dream exalted dreams of compassion; that it is possible to be free and strengthen the ideals of freedom, even within prison walls; that even in exile, friendship becomes an anchor.” Compassion is not something that is easy to understand, or even easy to show sometimes. The Holocaust was a difficult time to comprehend: how could one man have so much power and hate towards a society of people that he started a genocide? There may never be the right emotional explanation to describe the disturbing events that happened during the Holocaust, but Elie Weisel was able to share his. His message was that compassion and friendship can refrain someone from sinking so deep into a dark sea like the Holocaust.
In David Foster Wallace’s graduation speech, This Is Water, he uses logical and emotional appeals to discuss the importance of critical thinking. Wallace uses the term “conscious” to signal critical thinkers, while those who do not think critically are referred to as “unconscious.” Wallace’s main argument is that a person has the choice to think critically and should do so every day. Wallace’s analysis of consciousness and unconsciousness focusses too heavily on the logical and emotional appeals and ignores the possible ethical arguments that support the development of conscious societies, such as activism. In doing so, Wallace favours the self-interested members of the audience and alienates those who favour altruism, limiting the scope of his argument.
The main connection made is that of a closed mined untrained thinking person not being able to see the world or anything as it really is. A person who is closed minded is no better off than a slave chained inside a cave who has no clear understanding of the world as it is. The untrained thinker is to themselves a slave of their own mind. The untrained minded person also has no idea he is in a cave like the two fish in Wallace’s speech that have no clue they are in water cause it is all they have ever known.
Since rhetoric was established, arguments have been the basis of both communication and literature over the course of history. As one of the oldest and widely-used devices in rhetoric, writers –over the centuries –have used arguments to present issues to their readers in a context that uses carefully-chosen, well-composed arguments, while, at the same time, supports their cases with sound and logical reasoning in order to convince their readers that their claims are good or true. Many people, especially during the late eighteenth century and from then on, have composed arguments that were powerful enough to begin a war. Other works of rhetoric have empowered discriminated groups to band together and revolt against their oppressors in order
The subject of death is one that many have trouble talking about, but Virginia Woolf provides her ideas in her narration The Death of the Moth. The moth is used as a metaphor to depict the constant battle between life and death, as well as Woolf’s struggle with chronic depression. Her use of pathos and personification of the moth helps readers develop an emotional connection and twists them to feel a certain way. Her intentional use of often awkward punctuation forces readers to take a step back and think about what they just read. Overall, Woolf uses these techniques to give her opinion on existence in general, and reminds readers that death is a part of life.
E.E. Cummings, the poet who got paid for publishing poems with crazy indentation and moo-woos. E. E. Cummings lived in America in the 1900’s and was a painter as well as a poet. How did E. E. Cummings use auditory and visual techniques in his poems to create a deeper meaning? E. E. Cummings creates meaning in his poems by using Auditory and visual techniques at the disposal.
In the story “Young Goodman Brown”, the devil is convincing Goodman Brown to come attend the devil’s party in the forest by using pathos and ethos. The devil first uses pathos by narrating his relationship with Brown’s father and grandfather, who are devout puritans. He makes up the experience of helping Brown’s forefathers lash the Quaker woman and fight with the Indians in King Philip’s War in order to associate himself with the Puritan values of being pious to god and contributing to social welfare. Additionally, by flattering Brown’s ancestry’s contributions, the devil emotionally pleased Brown and letting Brown to believe that the devil is a kind and devout old man just like his grandfather. Besides that, the devil also uses ethos by asserting