Summary Of Kenyon Commencement Speech By David Foster Wallace

If a person never learns how to have control over what they think or how to view things differently then they will live much of their adult life arrogant, in their head, or upset. David Foster Wallace begins by discussing how liberal arts colleges “teach you how to think” and continues to discuss how he has always disliked this. He already believes he knows how to think, being that thinking is what got him in college in the first place. He explains how everyone thinks differently and has their own thing that they worship but, everyone views themselves as the center of the universe. This point of view can leave people living day to day life finding every reason to be angry or annoyed about everything surrounding them. With that, he says all

Through proving that we are not always correct, and reminding the audience that different people can have different views of reality, Wallace is able to use logical reasoning to show that humans have the ability to change their perspectives.

Wallace is trying to say that he isn’t the person who is telling them what they have to do in their life, and that the persons themselves are who is supposed to make their own life how they want it to be. I think he avoids telling them what to do because he only gave examples of how a routine life can be like and for them to be conscious of the life they are in.

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.

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

The first point that Wallace discussed was the negative effects of having a natural default-setting. He talks about how a natural default-setting can lead to increased frustration in almost any activity or job because everything is probably not always going to go right. Wallace also used many examples to show the audience the negative effects. It is very important for people to be able to visualize examples because it will leave a greater lasting understanding of what is being discussed. Wallace did great at giving examples to help the audience have an easier time to visualize his stories. One of his examples, he discussed was the frustration of driving all the way home through, slow and heavy SUV-intensive rush-hour traffic. (Wallace 5)” Wallace said that the reason people feel like this is because “they feel they are the center of the universe, that they are the most important person in the world (2).” Wallace discussed, that there are many reasons for people to be frustrated in their daily lives, but he felt it was important for people to fight the urge of staying in their natural default-setting.

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

One display of the conflict is shown in the novel when Howard is defending himself in court. Howard argues,” But the mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought. An

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

Galileo Galilei, an Italian polymath, once said, “You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.” After graduating college, many students feel anxious about the new chapter of their lives they’re about to begin. Students are bound by a curriculum since primary school, guidelines they conform to all their lives in order to walk across a stage with a degree in hand. However, these individuals are seldom able to explore the passions inside of them that shape their aspirations throughout their time in the education system. Instead, they reflect on their college years of staying up all night to write final papers. Finals papers students have revised and edited a multitude of times in order to produce a paper that adheres to a rubric and, once again, conforming to another set of guidelines. In Donovan Livingston’s Harvard Graduate School of Education Commencement Speech, “Lift Off”, Livingston uses rhetorical devices such as alliteration, allusion, and metaphor to reinforce his message that students should not be limited by the confines of the education system, but that the education system should be supporting and guiding students towards reaching their full potential by the time they step out into the real world.

‘This is Water’ was originally a commencement speech,delivered by David Foster Wallace, to the graduates of Kenyon College in 2005, the speech was reprinted in the form of a book following his death in 2009. The title of this speech comes from a cliché anecdote about two young fish who were swimming in the ocean, and they pass an older fish who says to them, “morning boys, how’s the water?”, the two fish look at one another and say, “what the hell is water?”. The meaning behind this anecdote is that, most people live their lives and and don’t see the forest for the tree’s. This is me piling my own cliché anecdote on top of DFW’s

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

When you think about something your brain has to find a way on how to process this thought which is relatable to your self-being and

After analyzing both positions presented in the speech an the memorandum it is clear that the speech ,by Keanu Williams is best supported because etextbooks are more expensive in the long run and do not cut down on learning time.

Typically, mind wandering occurs within the regular flow of consciousness; that is the flow of thoughts that run or ‘flow’ throughout the conscious mind. Much of the time however, the initiation of mind wandering is an unconscious process and many individuals do not realise its initial engagement. Many of the methods available that allow mind wandering episodes to be measured, rely heavily on experience sampling techniques and depend on participants correctly reporting the contents of their consciousness at