Summary Of David Foster Wallace The New Liberal Arts

Before I read David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech “This is Water” and Sanford J. Ungar’s article “The New Liberal Arts”, I thought the liberal arts degree was a futile degree and meant nothing to society. After reading the passages it altered my perspective. Wallace and Ungar attempt use the rhetorical devices to meticulously explain the importance of getting a degree in the liberal arts by using pathos and the nods the opposition to support their ideals. However, Wallace’s use of pathos is descriptive and engaging and his nods to the opposition are thorough, while Ungar’s is indirect and his nods are shorthanded. Wallace is specific in the way he uses pathos in his commencement speech. He emotionally involves the reader/audience in his speech by using the second person when describing the daily routine and the struggles of the average adult, explicitly detailing a mundane trip to the grocery store after a stressful day of work. Likewise, he taps into the beliefs and ideals of the average adult when he says, “there is no such thing of not worshipping” (207) and explains the cause and effect relationship between what the audience worships.

He makes reference to his opposition by stating the appeals to misconceptions about the liberal arts he is trying to disprove. Different from Wallace, he sometimes uses statistics to help support his argument. For example, in his second misconception he talks about how college students are struggling to find jobs and having a liberal arts degree doesn’t make it easier. He plainly strikes down this notion by telling us that it’s difficult for all majors to find a job once you graduate and goes on further to state “Association of American Colleges and Universities actually found that more than three-quarters of our nation's employers recommend that college bound students pursue a "liberal