Throughout reading “Commencement Speech, Kenyon College”, I found this short story very inspiring to read as I found myself doing more research for this essay because I was so interested in it. Wallace was very reluctant to give this speech because he wasn’t sure he was ready to talk in front of 400 graduates and what if what he had to say was ordinary not something that would stick with all these students the rest of their lives. Reading this speech through the first time the tone particularly stuck out to me, a direct yet casualness in the way he made his argument really made this go from ordinary to extraordinary. Starting off with water and ending with water tied the essay into one big loop with many messages within it but a central message central the main idea water. Water comes within many forms like ice, evaporation, solid liquid, colored or even clear and so many more. The idea isn’t water is cool or everything is water but that life is everything and everywhere. Life can be happy, depressed, lonely, and uncontrollable but it still is life and that life is your and your life is precious and should be used like it was the last drop of water on the planet. David Foster Wallace uses his mindfulness to be bring about the ideas of our freedom and power in our own lives. For example, …show more content…
He speeches was written to everyone in the audience but also himself. “a slave to your own head” (310) and “its about making it…without wanting to shot yourself in the head” (313), his words weren’t evidence to his own life since he did commit suicide yet it serves as truth that he wishes all of them will live through the words he couldn’t anymore. He wanted to influence others to consciously go through life and live it up, and though it’s hard to live in the moment and always be happy especially to others approach life with excitement because, it won’t be easy but……just keep
The speech "This is Water", is a speech delivered to the class of Kenyon College 2005. David Foster wrote this speech to inform the struggles and lifestyle of what happens after college. Foster uses his lifestyle on an everyday basis to give examples of the life after college. Therefore, David ends his speech with "It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive, day in and day out." , he expresses this along with his examples to state the struggles of life.
Compare how the speakers (JFK and Tim Collins) shape their language to create a sense of voice The inaugural speech, presented by John F. Kennedy, and the ‘Eve of battle’ speech, presented by Tim Collins, can both be analysed for the similarities and also differences, comparing how the speakers shape their language specifically to create a sense of voice. The instantly recognisable difference between the two texts is the genre. The speech by John F. Kennedy (JFK) is his inaugural address.
Lukianoff and Haidt provide examples of how students are trying to eliminate speech that may be found offensive or discomforting on campus in their article for The Atlantic. Two fairly recent terms to understanding this development in student ideology are “microaggression” and “trigger warning.” A microaggression is inadvertently insulting someone or a group of people with something that was not meant to be offensive. A trigger warning is a warning often provided to students when the subject matter of a class may be found offensive or elicit a strong emotional response. These two terms represent the change in ideology towards speech on campuses.
He knew that suicide wasn’t the option, that he had a whole future in front of him. Life is like a person who wants to beat you up, succeeding many many times. But then we learn how to
David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” and Jonathan Franzen’s “Oh the Places You’ll Go” are commencement speeches at Kenyon College, delivered by amazing authors. Although Wallace and Franzen's speeches convey different perspectives and ideas, both speeches advise students with a significant message about life. To begin with, the differences between Wallace’s and Franzen’s speeches; one focuses on the purpose of education and the other on our infatuation with technology. In his speech, Wallace indicates the purpose of liberal arts education.
For my speaker and speech analysis assignment, I chose JFK’s inaugural address speech. I chose this speech because I think he has an interesting story and with this speech, he inspired a great amount of optimism and patriotism in America. It is often considered one of our country’s most important speeches. In my analysis, I will be focusing on JFKs background, and many aspects of his speech including his delivery, organizational, persuasive and rhetorical techniques.
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
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.
This Is Water is a book based on David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Kenyon College commencement speech that was delivered in late May of that year. This Is Water aims to provide a description of life beyond college, but the life it describes is not one full of life’s triumphs; the life that This Is Water describes is the everyday life of the average graduate – long, grueling days filled with work and frustration. In his commencement speech, David Foster Wallace makes use of anecdotes, careful syntax use per its context, and many calls to action in order to create a somber tone to explain “the daily grind” of real life and how to rid ourselves of it to a collection of graduating seniors. Wallace begins his speech with an anecdote, which in its entirety
Things can be seen different in many perspectives. It can be interpreted in ways others can’t see. But in order to regulate and adjust our lives, to show the meaning of what we see, we need the solitude to consolidate our thoughts and see things that were hidden in the first place. In “Nature,” Ralph Waldo Emerson applies rhetorical strategies for instance the imagery of unity and the allusion of God to experience the nature in solitude. Emerson starts off his piece with imagery of the unity between man and nature.
Steven Zheng Mrs.Korey 3/20/23 English 2 “Jason Reynold delivers Lesley University Commencement Address,” Rhetorical Analysis Numerous individuals each year graduate from college, destined for the real world as they take flight. In the highly creative and skillfully crafted, “Jason Reynolds delivers Lesley University Commencement Address”, given at the commencement of the graduates of Lesley University on May 19th 2018, Jason Reynolds delivers a poignant and deeply meaningful message of taking on the world. Jason Reynolds establishes credibility and meaningfully appeals emotionally to his audience through his masterful use of similes, metaphor, alliteration, repetition, symbolism, humor, and charisma to help them take flight in their lives.
John F. Kennedy uses literary devices to capture the attention of the audience, sets himself equal to his audience getting their attention and support, and uses the christian religion to strike the emotions and gain the support of his audience. Kennedy uses many literary devices to catch the attention of his audience. One of these devices is repetition. One example of repetition that Kennedy uses is, “Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.
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.
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.
Great Storytelling Lu Jia Delivered on a campus in California to an audience of a few thousands, yet it ended up inspiring tens of millions from both U.S. and worldwide; worshiped by Silicon Valley as the ultimate career talk, yet it embodied many aspects of life - chance, love, loss, and ultimately death. Short but smart, targeted yet universal, poignant and timeless – thus is Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address at Stanford. Some attribute its success to Jobs’ personal influence and charisma – they do add significant weight to the speech, undeniably. But close inspections from the lenses of rhetorical analysis allow us to appreciate this speech from a different perspective – in particular, how the speech was crafted into a fitting response to its rhetorical situation and how Jobs managed to strike a chord with his audience through the masterful use of logos, pathos and ethos, whether planned or not.