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David Foster Wallace's Commencement Speech In Kenyon College

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David Foster Wallace has presented a commencement speech in Kenyon College on May 21, 2005. Kenyon College is a small private liberal art college in Ohio. His speech This is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion about Living a Compassionate Life was twenty-two minutes long and within that time it was motivational, emotional, and he made numerous recommendations for how to live your life. Wallace explains what he believes is the most important benefits of a college education. He wanted to send a message to the graduating college students that we can make the world a better place by being more self-aware and by being concerned for the well being of others because helping others won’t ever be damaging to society. Reading …show more content…

I agree with Wallace that we should treat others with respect however, we can be expected to be self-aware and well adjusted every day but that is just living in a perfect world, which is a utopia society. Where everyone and everything remains the same and no conflict in the world, which is impossible to achieve. Everyone is different and have there own bias on what they thing creating several of self-awareness. It is good that some people could be well adjusted every day because it balances out the negatives in the world. Being self-aware enhanced to better emotional regulation and growth toward self-improvement and contentment. Reading and listening Wallace’s This is Water, I have noticed there were some of his ideas that struck me. The stories that he has provided has struck me because it gave me an idea to understand that if we can, time to time, step back and reflect life, we will be surprise to find that the our own individual perspective allows us the freedom to lead basically and personally meaningful lives. This allowed me to agree and disagree on some of his advises on how to live life. Also, I learn that most important thing to realize is that your life is defined not by what happens to you but rather by how you react to

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Wallace, David Foster "This is Water" Kenyon College Commencement Speech 2005 In the speech "This is Water" David Foster Wallace attempts to explain how the general populace is self-centered and what a person can do to change the "default setting" within our mind. Wallace's main point is to get his audience to understand and realize that they have a daily choice to make between being inconsiderate and acknowledging those around them. They can either remain conceited and unsympathetic towards others, or they can change and attempt to see and understand the situations of those around them as they go through their daily trials. Wallace uses various examples to explain and expand his argument.

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Wallace, David Foster "This is Water" Kenyon College Commencement Speech 2005 The general argument by David Foster Wallace in his work "This is Water" is that sometimes the most obvious realities are the hardest to comprehend. More specifically, he argues that thinking negatively is not a choice but a natural setting and we need to start thinking cognitively and outside the box. Wallace performs this speech for a group of graduating college students to prepare them for the future life they are about to embark on. He includes the grocery store example so that the reader's can connect to the story because they have gone through that situation themselves; he is trying to connect to the audience.

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Since the dawn of the scientific revolution, historical advances has been made for the pursuit of a finer and a stronger understanding of life. But, not all advancements has benefited our society. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed concerns regarding these developments in his “Farewell Address” speech. As his final speech as president, he leaves his audience with a message that may have shocked some listeners. Not to mention he also gave his thoughts on how we should go about solving our issues as a nation.

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In his commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005, David Foster Wallace was tasked with the responsibility of imparting some wisdom onto the graduating class. Wallace’s message to a room of full soon-to-be college graduates at the precipice of the of their impending true adulthood, he offers them a message that cuts through the mess and concisely delivers a message that many would ironically overlook, which is for the students to realize that at times, imperative life lessons are not only the ones that they cannot conceive or believe, but the ones that are obvious but hard to acknowledge let alone discuss. The lesson in this is that no matter how instinctive that cynicism is, it is imperative that people must try to more honest and open

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David Foster Wallace was an American Writer and an instructor at Illinois State University of English and creative writing. Wallace became the 2005 commencement speaker at Kenyon College in which he gave one of the best commencement speeches ever given. After his death three years later, the speech was printed in the Wall Street Journal and republished as a book. In his speech, Wallace made a lot of points and after thoroughly reading and thinking about them I can strongly agree with every single one of them. Such opinions were things that I had never thought about nor paid the littlest attention to, but after reading his speech I became fascinated.

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We go through life with important, beautiful things hovering right below our nose in our reach the whole time yet for some reason we never seem to notice them they slip right out from under us like they were never there at all. We’ve been in water but never been able to distinguish it. David Foster Wallace touches on all the aspects of selfishness and belief in his changing speech to Kenyan students called This is Water David Foster Wallace uses vivid imagery, figurative language , and symbolism to enhance the readers/listeners experience well making the piece seem more personal. One literary tool that David Foster Wallace uses to invoke more feeling the reader is vivid imagery.

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He told the students that if everyone would be honest with themselves and others they would admit to being self-centered egotistical jerks. He said we were born thinking that way but the good news is we can reprogram ourselves by changing our perspective on others and being empathetic to other people’s situations and feelings. Wallace also

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David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech “This is Water” at Kenyon College is often thought of as one of the most influential speeches because it calls the graduates to observe the world around them through a different lens. However, he does not accomplish that by calling the graduates to action, but instead challenges them to use their education. He also appeals to the students’ emotions through his use of ethos, logos, and pathos. Although people mostly only remember the antidotes, it is the message associated with reoccurring emotions and literary devices throughout the speech that moves the reader into action. Wallace is able to captivate his audience and persuade them to view the world without themselves at the center through his tactful use of rhetoric.

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Every writer or speaker spends a lot of time prepare what they what to say and how they want to say it. It is a long process and takes a lot of time; because they need to think and re-think about the main idea and the purpose. Also they need to be awareness that it is difficult to engage people in spoken or written form. In order to communicate effectively most of them use rhetorical enhances communications and presentation skills. Rhetoric is an ancient art which started in Greece but it is still use it now day in speeches on different situations.

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Wallace states that we shouldn’t be obsessed with money, power, or our own body, because then we begin to slowly feel poor, weak, and ugly, but we already think this way. It was how we are hard-wired to think. Once we realize that, and begin to think differently, that is when we truly have real freedom. He sums up his speech with a few words about how a real education isn’t really about knowledge, but it is all about simple

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Real During the 1990s, David Foster Wallace wrote various, interpretive essays that represented narratives in a collection titled A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. The main essay, titled as the collection, was a thoughtful reflection of Wallace’s experience on Nadir, his first extravagant cruise. The hundred page range of the essay gives way to Wallace’s verbose quality, illustrating his commitment to recap his past experiences accompanied with in-depth analyses. Wallace’s other essays in the collection emits a similar style, with detailed descriptions of his experiences and perceptions of the world.

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David Foster Wallace is an American writer. He spoke at the Kenyon Commencement Address in 2005, where he gave a speech to the graduating class of the year. David tells the graduates of Kenyon College what the true meaning of a liberal arts degree is, and how they should go about finding it. David Foster Wallace’s appeals to credibility, emotion and logical reasoning in his speech – “This Is Water” – to strengthen the idea that the meaning of education is learning how and what to think, independently.

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In David Foster Wallace’s “ Kenyon Commencement Speech,” he discusses the importance of liberal arts education in “teaching you how to think” (Wallace, 199). He mentions how education is beyond the knowledge we learn, but about simple awareness will impact the choices we make for better or worse. The real value of education cannot be found in a career (you may or may not be fired from), but it can be found in the way you view things through a different perspective and by considering how other factors can contribute to everyday life. This new approach in thinking will allow us to appreciate our lives and overcome our inner “default setting” towards the world (Wallace, 199). I agree with Wallace’s argument because the purpose of higher education should not be about having career-specific skills and obtaining a degree, but about intellectual and personal growth will help us survive in the real world.

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On September 8, 2009 in Arlington, Virginia, President Barack Obama issued a “Back to School” speech. In this speech, he outlined the importance of a student’s education and how it may reflect on their future. President Obama plans to encourage students to try their hardest in the upcoming school year by convincing them to “put their best effort into everything that they do” no matter how challenging life may get at times. Succeeding in school is not always easy due to other challenges in life, but it is definitely not impossible. Growing up, Barack was raised by a single mother who did not have loads of money to send him to school with the other American children.

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Everyone knows that reading is important, but have you ever asked yourself why is that so? Reading is one of the most beneficial and practical activities that a human being can do. Unfortunately it is a disappointment that people these days read less. As we know, books were the main source of entertainment centuries ago, but with the widespread of technological advances such as the cinema, television, internet, among others, many people left their books on the bookshelf. The purpose of this speech is to present the benefits and the importance of reading.

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