A Rhetorical Analysis Of This Is Water By Foster Wallace

In the Commencement Speech, “This is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life,” Wallace claims that people are naturally self- centered. (235) We only tend to see the world as it relates or pertains to us. Wallace’s speech is meant to change the graduate’s perspective on the world. Wallace believes that the graduates should heed his advice because it will eventually provide an important

Comparing and contrasting Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” and Chandler Tuttle’s 2081 in relation to their characterization of the short story’s namesake is an undertaking chock-full of potential. These two sources are very different in their representation of young Harrison and this serves to completely skew one’s preconceived understanding of his person, motivations, and desires. Due to this subtle but significant variation one can come to the conclusion that the way an individual is portrayed and the words they speak in different genres greatly manipulates others’ perception of their character. This is evident when one analyzes the monologuing and shot choices of the short film or the descriptions and dialogue in the story.

“This is Water”, a commencement speech by David Foster Wallace to the graduating class of 2005 at Kenyon College, talks about how they, the students, haven’t faced real life yet and how their surroundings are what they’ve been in and are used to. Wallace conveys his message very well because of his use of emotional appeal as well as his word choice. He reminds his audience to look beyond yourself and think about how life is not just your story and your world, it’s about others and stepping into their shoes for a minute and seeing other perspectives. Most importantly, he is able to speak from personal stories and relatable scenarios which makes him credible and his speech becomes applicable to the audience at the graduation.

In his essay Consider the Lobster, it’s apparent what David Foster Wallace is trying to tell his audience: we should really think about the lobster’s point of view before cooking and eating it. Wallace uses multiple rhetorical strategies to get his point across, including pathos and ethos. His essay is very good in how it gets its point across, and how it forces even the largest lobster consumers to truly contemplate how the lobster might react being boiled alive. It brings up many controversial topics of animal rights that many people tend to avoid, especially people who are major carnivores. Wallace’s use of rhetorical strategies really gets the reader thinking, and thoroughly captures the argument of many vegetarians against the consumption of animals. Wallace captures the use of pathos in his essay and uses it in a way that is incredibly convincing to the reader. For example, he compares the Maine Lobster Festival to how a Nebraska Beef Festival could be, stating, “at which part of the festivities is watching trucks pull up and the live cattle get driven down the ramp and slaughtered right there…” (Wallace 700). Playing off of people’s natural tendency to feel bad for the cattle, he shows that the killing of lobster is, in reality, no different than the killing of cattle, but we treat it much differently. We tend to think that lobsters are different because they are less human than cows are, and, maybe to make us feel better about our senseless killing of an animal,

1. David Foster Wallace opens his speech with an anecdote about fish and water. Metaphorically, what does this anecdote represent? What impact does it have when Wallace returns to the line “This is water”again at the end of the speech?

Everyone has an opinion when it comes to animals being killed and eaten. If a person agrees or not is completely their own opinion and will not be the focus of the essay. David Wallace’s essay “ Consider the Lobster,” is used to address perspectives of varying opinions while trying to persuade the reader. The author accomplishes this throughout the essay through the excellent use of multiple rhetorical techniques. Rhetorical devices such as ethos, lothos and pathos are all used in the essay to convey the author's opinion and try to convince the reader to choose a side.

In class, we studied biases in many texts and how those biases affected the way people see the world. We read the NPR interview “Stanford Study Finds Most Students Vulnerable to Fake News” where Kelly McEvers talks to Professor Sam Wineburg about his study on the ability of students to differentiate between fake and real news. In addition, we read the commencement speech “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace which discusses biases and how attitude and awareness can shape people’s personalities and overall happiness.

A short parable comprises the opening paragraph of Wallace’s speech. In this, there are two fish swimming along when they pass an older fish, headed in the opposite direction, that asks them how the water is. The two fish continue along for a bit before one asks the other “what the hell is water?” This serves as an extended metaphor used by Wallace to demonstrate his main argument for awareness in life. Just as the fish do not consider their surroundings, people more often than not fail to consider

I believe that existence is comprised of hundreds and millions of different realities intermingling and colliding into one another. I also believe that at the center of each reality there lies the individual who crafted it. Our perception of what is real and false exists solely in our own minds, and our minds are what determines the lense in which we perceive the world. Our perception is largely influenced by our psyche; how we live and think stems from our perception of the world. Our brains are directly influenced by a number of key factors, including but not limited to; societal connotations, individual experience, instinctual desires, environmental factors, and cognitive thought. These factors, as well as other conditions, are what determine our “default setting.” In his noteable “This is Water” speech, given at the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address, David Foster Wallace argues a similar idea as he explains his take on the phrase “teaching you how to think”. Through his use of relatable parables and anecdotes and repetition and reverent focus of words like “choice” and “awareness” he paints a livid picture of the use of conscious choice in our daily lives. He stresses the concept of a self centered “default setting” that comes from an individual's “blind certainty” and the repercussions that deferring to that default can have on an individual's lifestyle and fulfilment. If we are unable to recognise the water in which we dwell we will always remain unaware, stuck in an

In this novel Ralph Ellison drew the reader in by making the hardship that the main character face impact how the reader saw others lives. Many readers found it very easy to connect on a personal level with the main character and feel his hardships. This helped readers to realize that even though people look different from others they still face many of the hardships that everyone does and they feel the same emotions.

Wallace uses quotes from many different people throughout the novel, whether he has known them for a long time or had just met them. These quotes add to the theme of the story because it gives other characters input besides the authors alone. It proves that others think this way as well and expect something to be a certain way, when in reality it happens to be the complete opposite. Wallace expected a Midwesterner, who he was interviewing at a state fair, about what others thought of what she did, he asked, “So this doesn’t bother you? As a Midwesterner, you’re unbothered? Or did you just not have an accurate sense of what was going on back there?” The lady simply replied with, “So if I noticed or I didn’t, why does it have to be my deal? What, because there’s assholes in the world I don’t get to ride on The Zipper? I don’t ever get to spin? Maybe I shouldn’t ever go to the pool or get all girled up, just out of fear of assholes?” (101). After Wallace asks how this woman feels and what others say she should feel after her embarrassment, and instead of being terrified she did not seem to care. The woman told Wallace that just because she should feel a certain way does not mean she will, insisting that she can do whatever she pleases, even after many people tell her she should not. Following talking to that woman, Wallace interviewed a gentleman during the same fair. He asked the man, “But would they want to? Your kids I mean. Would they want to hit the Hollow, ride the rides, eat all-butter fudge, test various skills, mingle a little?” (110). Most people would expect this man to say yes because that is what a great deal of people go to the fair for. Instead the man replies, “Hail no. We all come for the shows” (110). The majority of people at the fair may stop to visit the

Occasionally Wallace worked double-time in order to bend reality to meet his fears, employing a kind of metalogic reminiscent of his fiction. “A lot of his criticism wasn’t that he was stupid in the whole bell curve of the population, but that what he was really good at was pretending to be really smart,” the novelist Mark Costello told me about his old friend and college

Wallace’s use of changing viewpoints adds to what he originally wants to do, which is to be able to give the reader a chance to pick which side of the argument they want to be on. The author not only gives the reader different views, but he also changes up his tone. By adding dynamic shifts in his writing, he includes the reader and gives better feel for what this article is really about. This gives the reader a feel of what Wallace really is thinking. This sentence stands out due to the fact that Wallace talks about the positive aspects of what occurs during the festival throughout the beginning of the article.

Ernest Hemmingway is known for his barren and minimal stories; thus, his work requires one to think deeply about what is happening. In turn, this often leads to a greater understanding of his stories. One cannot just skim over Hemmingway’s literature, they have to decipher the movement and underlying meaning behind his words, basically, one can think of it like this—a silent movie does not have words, inversely, Hemmingway’s stories had words, but did not illustrate thoughts and movement. This was particularly true for his short story—Hills Like White Elephants, which surrounded a couple and their short conversation while waiting for a train. They conversed over drinks, which foretold the stressful nature of their conversation. The man in the

David Foster Wallace emphasizes how easy it can be to live an entire life as a close- minded individual. He explains how he subconsciously views himself as the center of the universe, despite how unacceptable it is within society. “It is our default-setting, hard wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: There is no experience you’ve had that you were not at the absolute center of.” People are constantly putting themselves before others; it is essentially how we are engineered to think. Wallace pushes the concept of expanding one’s mind to include the lives of others in order to combat the self centered thoughts they are faced with.