Analysis Of The Speech ' This Is Water ' By David Foster Wallace

This is Water, was a commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College in 2005. Ever since this speech has been given it has become well known. Because of the length, it can be hard to read through the speech while trying to understand the whole idea of it. Wallace fills the speech with stories, examples, and vivid ideas while trying to convince these college graduates how to view life in a positive perspective. While this speech is packed full of ideas he manages to give it in a way outside of the norm for commencement speeches. Yet still gets all the information to the graduates and anyone else who listens to it.

In David Foster Wallace’s graduation speech, This Is Water, he uses logical and emotional appeals to discuss the importance of critical thinking. Wallace uses the term “conscious” to signal critical thinkers, while those who do not think critically are referred to as “unconscious.” Wallace’s main argument is that a person has the choice to think critically and should do so every day. Wallace’s analysis of consciousness and unconsciousness focusses too heavily on the logical and emotional appeals and ignores the possible ethical arguments that support the development of conscious societies, such as activism. In doing so, Wallace favours the self-interested members of the audience and alienates those who favour altruism, limiting the

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?

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

One example of bias is all the theorists and skeptics about why Amelia Earhart’s plane disappeared in 1937.

The interesting thing about bias is how and why it develops. Often it is rooted in fear and even denial. People are easily intimidated by things that are different, and they are motivated by acceptance. So, sometimes we pretend to be something we are not in order to fit in. The irony in this is that bias may develop against things that are actually a part of our own makeup. If we are honest, it becomes evident that

Many people tend to become frustrated with their daily lives and start to have a negative mindset of blaming other people for their problems. In David Foster Wallace’s speech, “This is Water,” he informed the audience of the importance for everyone to know they have a natural default setting, which is the automatic way that a person feels they are the center of the universe and that negative situations are other people’s fault. He also discussed the importance of trying not to act in this natural default setting, and try to think of problems that other people have to go through in their lives. The main purpose of Wallace’s speech was to persuade the audience to fight the urge of staying in their natural default setting to prevent

Throughout my research, a challenge I encountered was the fact that some of the articles I encountered seemed to included biases within them especially with the primary view of

Foster Wallace’s commencement address on May 21, 2005, ‘This is Water,” proposes the concept of being able to choose how to think instead of being able to learn what to think expresses the true idea of enlightenment. Through detailed imagery that creates a contemptuous tone, repetition of diction that creates emphasis , and anecdotes that arouse interest, Wallace successfully defends his proposition on the true meaning of being educated; to be able to discipline yourself to override the default setting of selfishness and switch on a more empathetic attitude towards life and others. Finally, despite many views of contradiction, Wallace's tragic suicide three years after this speech further builds on his theory of awareness. Although he was

A classic experiment on the natural obedience of individuals was designed and tested by a Yale psychologist, Stanley Milgram. The test forced participants to either go against their morals or violate authority. For the experiment, two people would come into the lab after being told they were testing memory loss, though only one of them was actually being tested. The unaware individual, called the “teacher” would sit in a separate room, administering memory related questions. If the individual in the other room, the “learner,” gave a wrong answer, the teacher would administer a shock in a series of increasingly painful shocks correlating with the more answers given incorrectly. Milgram set up a recorder

In the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address, David Foster Wallace tries to persuade the graduates that education is having awareness. Being educated isn’t about earning a degree or how much knowledge you have but about how you think. Wallace shows that knowing how to think can change the way you look at situations, knowing how to think gives a person situational awareness. Paying attention to situations around you and things about them gives you other options of how to look at them. During his speech, Wallace gives the example of being frustrated in the grocery store after work or while driving in traffic; if you think of different options instead of thinking about yourself then you can look at these situations differently or even feel better.

David Wallace Foster’s speech “This is Water” explains why you should stop standing by for somebody to feel pity for you! Nobody really cares if you make it to college or not. Humans are too busy seeking a way to survive, and the wise ones are not taking any risk that could get them incarcerated or murdered. As a matter of fact, you will never prosper if you never increase your maturity like a nonfictional military soldier. You have to unblock your vision, take a genuine glimpse at what’s inside of you, defeat every temptation, and have self-control on your permanent decision.

The speech by Debra Hawhee describes a scenario, called the Unending Conversation, in which a continuous conversation is occuring in the world. She argues that these types of conversations occur everywhere and will continue throughout the student’s four years of college and into the future. Throughout her speech she describes that through the college experience and education, these students will learn how to engage in the conversation and respond. She encourages the idea not to stray away from disagreement because it allows for people to listen to other people which leads to critical thinking, more thoughtful response and an overall better conversation. David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech describes the importance of the way people think

In the opening of David Foster Wallace’s speech, he talks about two young fish swimming past an older adult fish who is swimming in the opposite direction. The older fish asked them a question about the water, and yet they had no idea what water is. Wallace made an interesting point with this story by emphasizing that what is right in front of us we tend not to be conscious of it. Wallace painted a picture for the audience about two men in a bar arguing about religion. The significance to this story is that one person can interrupt the same experience or situation differently.

My first encounter with biased thinking was in kindergarten when one of my classmates, Emily, asked to play with a boy’s GameBoy Color. GameBoys were the coolest things when we were five years old, so it was no surprise that Emily was curious to see what it was like. He turned to her and said, “GameBoys are