Analysis Of David Foster Wallace's Speech 'Unending Conversation'

In “Consider the Lobster”, an essay published in August of 2004, David Foster Wallace argues that torturing and killing animals for humanistic pleasure is unethical and inhumane. Throughout the essay, Wallace utilizes rhetorical devices and draws emotion from the audience to support his central claim. Wallace describes the history of lobsters, the Maine Lobster Festival, and how lobsters are cooked and killed in order to raise awareness on the inhumanity in how lobsters and animals in general are treated. Wallace effectively supports his argument by establishing pathos and providing context on the cruel methods in which lobsters are baited and eventually cooked, gaining support for his thesis. Rhetorical Devices •

Yuling Lu (Gipsy) ENGL 202B Prof. Charnesky 2/3/2015 Explication for Consider the Lobster In "Consider the Lobster", David Foster Wallace argues that the process of cooking lobsters is an issue both uncomfortable and complex.

David Foster Wallace begins the 2005 Kenyon Commencement address, by telling the graduating class that education is a useless endeavor if you first do not have the ability to think. The graduates all want to assume that at this point they fully understand how to think. Wallace provides evidence that as we all know how to think, we usually think of things in a very superficial way. Thinking in a superficial manner isn’t bad, right? We all constantly think of ourselves, because we have to take care of ourselves, and we don’t usually see circumstances that don’t fit our lives or what we’re directly going through, but this is exactly Wallace’s point. Our natural human instinct is to think of ourselves and how we feel in every situation, but instead

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,

“Build your own life...find your opportunity, and always be sexy.” The general claim made by Aston Kutcher’s in his speech at the Teen Choice Awards is that to be successful you have to make your own life, work hard, and be thoughtful. He uses ethos and rhetorical devices to support his claim. His purpose is to inform in order to be inspiring. He establishes a serious but casual tone for his audience of mostly teens.

In David Foster Wallace’s Commencement Speech, he opens with a short parable about how a fish greets two other fishes and ask them how’s the water today, this parable introduces us to his message which is changing that default setting which is hard-wired into our brains to have a life worth living. I agree with his statement because this is’nt just the first time this formula has been brought to our attention. Many success people have said this statement in some form or fashion, we can even look at David Sedaris’s commencement speech.

In David Wallace’s commencement speech, Wallace gives the graduating class of Kenyon College a new and insightful perspective on everyday life. Wallace believes that every human has a default mindset that is all about “me”. His dream is to one day switch gears from the default mindset to a more mindful and courteous mindset.

Eventually, David Foster Wallace keeps given ideas that relate what it seems to be the main idea on his speech. For example, when he says “learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think.” (Pg. 4). This idea is probably the closest to the main idea, because its saying that the more you think the more you are learning from a situation or an experience. Giving prove that our mind has no limits it gives us the capacity to go beyond our limits of thinking. If we think of something we should think deeply on what we are thinking because if we are just thinking the basic, we are not letting our mind and thinking grown. As humans or brain is capable to understand more than we think, and think broader

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.

One of the finest commencement speeches was given by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College. Wallace’s speech can be viewed as enlightening to those who are often blindly single-minded. It forces the audience to take a look at the way they approach everyday situations, rather than being self-centered, consider others before yourself. However, many overlook Wallace’s impeccable rhetorical maneuvers, focusing on the constant clichés and fictional anecdotes used. What people don’t realize is these clichés and fictional anecdotes are what make Wallace’s speech effective and reinforce the basic principles we were taught as a child, to share and think of others before ourselves. Overlooking Wallace’s flawless technique is doing a disservice to

In the 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College, David Foster Wallace delivered an unusual message to the graduates. He uses a unique approach to the typical conventions of a commencement speech in order to catch the attention of the graduates and to reinforce the honesty of his message. By defying their expectations, he urges them to consider their own obliviousness and to look past their own natural biases in order to see what’s truly right in front of them.

Ray Bacchetti believes public schools support conversations with differing viewpoints that further a student’s support for an ideal or challenges it (Koonce, 2015).

We have all heard Martin Luther King’s famous speech, I have a Dream. His main goal was to convince everyone across the country to comprehend racial equality and to reinforce a solution for those individuals already engaged in the Civil Rights movement. You could say his speech was part of what made the movement successful. By him taking a stand, much attention was put into the problems that were going on. He was and still is viewed as an important leader who was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement. Here we will basically dissect parts of his speech and define the points he was making and trying to make. Throughout the paper, you will see how Dr. King uses Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to show his audience and make them feel what went on.

A Rhetorical Analysis On Wallace’s “This is Water” In the speech titled, “This is Water,” David Foster Wallace gives a commencement speech to the Liberal Arts graduating class of Kenyon College. He introduces a common cliche that serves as the foundation of his speech. He asserts that a liberal arts education is not about being filled with knowledge, but rather, recognizing the value in having the advantage of being taught how to think and the necessity of this phenomenon in coming adulthood. Wallace effectively convinces his audience that the true benefit of education is being taught how to consciously choose what to think about.

Failure is an obstacle, everyone during their life must face and come to accept. But, what really is failure? I see failure as when you try to achieve at something, but do not succeed in doing so. A person who has faced many letdowns in his life is Denzel Washington; as he talks about failures in his 2011 University of Pennsylvania Commencement Address. During his speech, uses of rhetoric can be heard all throughout his words. Making the message he is trying to say to the graduating students that still have their lives in front of them, just so much more robust. Washington’s use of all three kinds of rhetoric throughout his speech about defeat and how to change your thoughts to overcome them.