The Rhetorical Analysis Of 'Water Is Life'

“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.

The ethos appeal is first appeal in the ShamWow commercial that is used ineffectively. Ethos is the appeal to credibility, an example of this would be having

St. Jude Children 's Research Hospital is asking for help from parents to support the hospital’s funding. This hospital was established in February 4, 1962 and their purpose “is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment” (StJude.org). The survival rate has arised and children are able to stay at no cost due to donation. They have raised survival of childhood of cancer from 20% to 80%. The St. Jude Children’s Research hospital advertisement is highly effective because it uses three different rhetorics. Firstly, it uses ethos to appeal to the credibility of the hospital by

The commercial by ASPCA has one message, and that is to protect and better the condition of life for national, farm, and wild animals. ASPCA is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing cruelty to animals. They have a mission, that is to rescue, save and help animals all around North America because there are way too many cases of animal cruelty and neglect. Sarah McLachlan makes an argument about animals being abused and neglected, and how we can change that by a mere donation. This argument persuades the audience with the small videos and pictures in the background showing sad, hurt, and neglected animals that need a home with owners who will love and take care of them.

Throughout the commercial sick children and shown being given different tests and laying in hospital beds. By showing these images the audience feels a sense of fear, loss, pain, and grief, even though they do not personally know the children. By not donating the audience does feel responsible for these sick children potentially losing their lives. At the same time the commercial causes such negative feelings, it also provides positive ones such as hope and pride. By donating to St. Jude’s hospital a child’s life can be saved and that is because of you. This is effective for St. Jude’s because most people would rather feel positive feelings rather than negative, so they are more likely to call and donate to keep that positive feeling going. Also, ending the advertisement on a positive note by telling the audience “You can bring them that hope” the audience is drawn into pathos all over

By asking the viewer to imagine themselves in a certain situation the creators of this ad are asking viewers to empathize with others. The clever use of pathos in this ad, is what will make viewers feel compassion and

While ethos plays a large role in the appeal of the video, pathos plays a role equally as large. The pathological appeal in the music video is present from start to finish. The video opens with a background soundtrack of an upbeat rap tune. The tune is catchy and grabs the viewer’s attention immediately. Will Smith compliments the catchy beat by rapping an energetic rap. The rap itself demands for viewers’ attention because it appeals to their taste in music.

The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had affected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it takes the experiences and knowledge of others to help you learn and build from them to help form your own personal identity. In the essay, O'Brien speaks about his experiences with a man by the name of Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodges that O'Brien stays on while on how journey to find himself. The experiences O'Brien has while there helps him to open his mind and realize what his true personal identity was. It gives you a sense than our own personal identities are built on the relationships we have with others. There are many influences out there such as our family and friends. Sometimes even groups of people such as others of our nationality and religion have a space in building our personal identities.

The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had effected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it take the experiences and knowledge of others to help you learn and build from them to help form your own personal identity. In the essay, O'Brien speaks about his experiences with a man by the name of Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodge that O'Brien stays at while on how journey to find himself. The experiences O'Brien has while there helps him to open his mind and realize what his true personal identity was. It gives you a sense than our own personal identities are built on the relationships we have with others. There are many influence out there such as our family and friends. Sometimes even groups of people such as others of our nationality and religion have a space in building our personal identities.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is asking for help from parents to support the hospital’s funding. This hospital was established in February 4, 1962 and their purpose “is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment” (StJude.org). The survival rate has arised and children are able to stay at no cost due to donation. They have raised survival of childhood of cancer from 20% to 80%. The St. Jude Children’s Research hospital advertisement is highly effective because it uses three different rhetorics. Firstly, it uses ethos to appeal to the credibility of the hospital by using doctors in the advertisement. Secondly, it uses familiar logos as a means of instilling confidence through brand recognition, and thirdly, it uses pathos to stimulate an emotional reaction by showing sick children lying on the bed.

The chapter “On the Rainy River” from the book The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien follows a young college graduate who is drafted into a war he does not believe in. In an effort to dodge the draft by fleeing to Canada, he is inevitably stopped by his internal struggle. The author uses diction to demonstrate this struggle through the tone revealed. O’Brien’s tone in this chapter is ashamed, which is conveyed through the narrator’s driving emotions, others’ perception of his actions, and in his ultimate decision to go to Vietnam.

David Foster Wallace wants the reader to realize that the most important and the most obvious realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about. Seeing what’s right in front of you can be the most difficult thing because you are always looking further and not opening your eyes to see the most obvious parts of life. Wallace is additionally trying to get the reader to tap into the real meaning of life as well as trying to move people away from their “default setting”. The opening of this speech starts out with the story of wise fish and the two young fish. After being asked about the water by the older fish, the two younger fish realize that they don’t know what water is. Fish don’t know water exists until beached;

The commencement speech, “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace is widely known due to the amazing message it provides. Wallace’s speech is unlike any other, which are usually very positive, inspirational, and oftentimes cliche. He asserts that the value behind an education is learning how to become aware of what we choose to think, and in doing so it brings freedom and vitality to an individual. His speech is very unorthodox, the structure is very different to normal graduation speeches, making his oration unique and special. Wallace uses rhetorical appeals to speak with recent graduates.

The speaker used different types of appeals towards his topic. He first used Pathos, by explaining how he was a firefighter and how he wanted to save lives by “slaying dragons”, which means to put out the fire. In his topic he showed how there is a new dragon that he wanted to slay, a dragon that consisted of five different dragons, each head had a disease or illness that is now killing many people. By using this fiction picture and showing his audience how much people are dying because of not living a healthy lifestyle shows the appeal to emotions that the speaker used in his introduction. Then after that I found that he merged both the appeal to reason which is logos, and the appeal to authority which is ethos. By talking about how he found

Moreover, there no “double speak” included in the ad, however, this child could be viewed as a form of propaganda due to the ad’s intention of helping children. The ad is also a form of propaganda because of the emblematic course of numerous children who get abused sexually each