What the Water’s Revealed, an essay by Jim Wallis, argues that the silent story of poverty in America was brought to light in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He also covers issues such as the war in Iraq and government spending that came under fire as a result of the storm. These were all issues that were slowly brewing prior to Katrina, but came to a head once people started looking for answers. Jim Wallis follows the classic principals of argumentation in his article. The subject covered in the article, is controversial and shocking for many Americans. He uses ethos, pathos, and logos to develop authority in the article and connect with readers.…
In his speech This is Water David Foster Wallace during a commencement ceremony begins discussing the purpose of education, not only to become intellectually educated but to learn how to think. He introduces a metaphor of two fishes that after being asked how the water was, they wondered what water is, being water all the actual and commonly dismissed reality that surrounds us. Thus, it has led us to create a natural default setting that has caused individuals to become centralized in their individual/personal needs only, and that our needs are sometimes put over more relevant matters to fulfill our necessities first. He states that knowing how to think is to be capable to decide what things we pay attention to and what we learn from experience.…
Wallace applies many rhetorical devices of persuasion to make his points sound convincing and his past experiences allows him to appeal to ethos, which highlights the speaker’s credibility. In the beginning of paragraph 2, Wallace tells his audience that “if you're worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don't be. I am not the wise old fish.” By admitting that he is “not the wise old fish”, Wallace establishes his credibility in two distinct ways. First, he demonstrates that he knows what he is talking about and secondly, Wallace moderates his audience by not pretending to be someone that he is not. Another way how Wallace uses ethos effectively is stating that…
In his speech “This is water” David F. Wallace (2005) states the advantage of being open-minded and describes the effectiveness of proper way of thinking. At the beginning the speaker claims that throughout life people may not be able to notice and discuss what is really important in life by illustrating the example of fish talk about the water. He argues that even though people have the ability to analyze, nevertheless they may not be able to realize how exactly to do it, and this is what liberal arts education tries to teach.…
The essays of David Foster Wallace are, in many ways, not about the subjects they pretend to cover. Foster Wallace is not concerned with lobsters, high-stake tennis matches or the way that Midwesterners gather around their TV's. Instead, Foster Wallace is interested with what surrounds these subjects and what they have to say about human experience. In this sense, the seemingly random topics Foster Wallace chooses to focus his lens on are actually incredibly precise. He uses them to find existential, and sometimes metaphysical, insight out of the mundane. It is for this reason that I think he is drawn to subjects that involve crowds, such as the Maine Lobster Festival in "Consider the Lobster," the 2006 Wimbledon tournament in "Federer as Religious Experience," and a group TV viewing in "911: The View from the Midwest." The increased number of people in the crowds in these settings gives Foster Wallace a larger sample…
Wallace while covering the topic of having the innate ability to choose how you see day to day life engages and enthralls the reader through the slight use of humor and contemporary sense full writing. While simplifying by generally extracting a piece of an event from the normal day of a worker, Wallace depicts the process of "Default" settings in one's own way of thinking. Wallace clearly defies normal structures of providing advice by genuinely speaking in a tone in which the reader feels connected. Pathos provided necessary flow between his words and the act of choosing to opt out of the "Default settings" Wallace pertains to motivate the audience to actively…
Wallace, David Foster. "This is Water." Kenyon college commencement speech. May 21, 2005. Wallace's speech gives a look at reality. The way an American adult's life is. The way how everything is routine, how if not "well adjusted," you will be self centered and in default setting. He describes the daily routine of an American adult, and how he goes to a supermarket, packed with more people. He gets frustrated and annoyed by all of these people; how they are just wasting his time. He then starts thinking how all of these people are going through the same thing he is going through; they have rough days just as he does. If someone was to think outside the box and actually focus on the beauty of this world, they will not be bored, annoyed, frustrated,…
Many have dubbed this generation of young adults as the “me” generation, a self-centered and egotistical group fixated only on their own successes and failures. I concede that this may be fitting; however, I also believe that this arrogance can be attributed to the popular belief that independence leads to success and, subsequently, that success leads to self fulfillment. This natural, almost automatic lifestyle, in which millennials disregard others and place themselves as the center of the universe, is what David Foster Wallace calls the “default setting.” (Wallace, 2015) He ensures us that it is a common way of living among many college graduates, though he also maintains that living in our default setting will only prevent us from leading fulfilling lives.…
He did not invoke any research studies, graphs, or data to build his argument. Nevertheless, he heavily relied on daily life examples that everyone can relate to and understand. For instance, he gave an extensive example about how the tedious routine of working adults could hijack our brains and shove us into a downward spiral of negativity and ego bloating, self-conversation. Wallace built on this to show us how a liberal art major can come into play by snapping us out of this unconscious train of thoughts to a differenttrain of thought, more critical and positive. The ability to direct our focus and choose what to think about are the real fruit of liberal art studies and critical thinking…
After reading the article “This is Water” by Wallace first of all I have to say that I enjoyed so much reading this article it had some great paragraphs that made you think and be like “Oh wow”. My overall thoughts about his article was that he was trying to convey on how most of the majority of adults life is on a every day to everyday basis with the majority have boring life and repetitive days making s angry and hate life because of the way we see life itself. He also talks about the way our brain sets up in the mode of its only about me and don’t see the lives of others and only worry about yours and makes it seem that only you are the one who is having problems and only you are the only one who matters in this world. But it’s not like…
Before retaillating in a situation its important to think will this leave a great inpact. In this commence speech by david foster Wallace he teaches young individuals to actknowledge their right and wrongs but in a well mannered way. Rather than disgracing someone. He wants individuals to feel good about themselves and not for there mind to take them to unpleasant dark place in life. Being tapped in the mind is a terrible experience in life.…
David Foster Wallace's speech is to show the value in liberal arts college. In the passage David Foster Wallace writes, "I have come gradually to understand that the liberal-arts cliche about "teaching you how to think" is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea "Learning how to think" really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience." He acknowledge not only the value in learning but also the perception towards life that only can gained by going to a liberal arts college. David Foster identify's this type of information as "Knowledge". "The point is that petty,frustrating crap like this exactly where the work of choosing comes…
Wallace started his speech with a short story about an older fish asking a couple of younger fish about the water. The younger fish swam a little and could not figure out what the older fish meant. Wallace then clarified by saying, “The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about” (199). This explanation leads to the main idea, which is the fact that a change in thinking that only your time is important or that people need to get out of your way, can save citizens from being so unhappy with everyone around them and their daily routine at their eight to five job. “Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to automatically be sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe” (201).…
Awareness comes across the population of humanity in many insightful fashions. This of other desirable traits has one of the greatest impacts on your life, whether you are aware of it or not. Throughout the readings of This is Water and The Three Questions, it was appointed that awareness is a quality of life that is acquired with time. I believe that having this trait has a world of difference if you find a way to merge it into your life; the result could end up being the difference between life or death. The way “awareness” is expressed in these pieces of writing, varies greatly, but can easily relate to each other under discrete circumstances.…
In today's society, education is more liberal, allowing people to think for themselves and providing them with a broader education. This differs from many years ago, when education was more conservative. Education was very basic, consisting of only academic classes and no electives. People with a more conservative education would never go against what they were taught. However, liberally educated people of today can go against what they are taught, research it themselves, and make new conclusions about their studies. A liberal education enables people to deal with the forces that control their life. It frees them from the restraints in everyday life. Having such a broad education allows people to deal with such forces. Four psychologists have written essays and constructed theories that can agree that liberal education is of a greater stature than conservatively educated. The essays are "The Theory of Multiple Intelligences," written by Howard Gardner, "The Personal and Collective Unconscious," written by Carl Jung, "The Allegory of the Cave," written by Plato, and "From the Interpretation of Dreams," written by Sigmund Freud.…