student
Abdisalam jama
Professor, Parker
English 205
Sep 25, 2014
Kenyon Commencement Speech
In May 2005, David Foster Wallace, an award-winning American essayist and novelist, delivered a commencement address to the graduating class at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Certainly, he is not the first American writer and college professor to address a graduating class. And yet, for some reason, in 2011, Time magazine named Wallace’s speech the “best commencement speech”; indeed, numerous other publications have rated Wallace’s commencement address as one of the “greatest.” For students, college graduation marks a time at which, with diploma in hand, you walk off the stage and look forward to the next phase of life. Often, colleges shed light on the important nature of graduation with the invitation of a keynote commencement speaker. It's a process that even extends to the President of the United States. He was famous for his 1996 novel “infinite jest” which was cited by time magazine as one of the 100 best English- language novels from 1923-2005.
Wallace’s first version of Kenyon Commencement speech was directed to mixed audience of parents, graduating students. In the beginning of his speech, his engagement with his audience by greeting, calling them, parents and congratulation to Kenyon class of 2005. He then grabbed their attention by starting a short story of two young fish swimming a long and meeting with an older wise fish swimming the other way. This short story grabbed everybody’s attention regardless of their age, All of these addresses could be bundled together with several common motifs: follow your dreams, you can achieve anything and do whatever is most pleasurable. These are all common themes of commencement addresses at just about every high school in the country. However, a commencement address from David Foster Wallace most likely would have been more straight-forward, more humorous and in the end, more beneficial. These are exactly the same
Professor, Parker
English 205
Sep 25, 2014
Kenyon Commencement Speech
In May 2005, David Foster Wallace, an award-winning American essayist and novelist, delivered a commencement address to the graduating class at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Certainly, he is not the first American writer and college professor to address a graduating class. And yet, for some reason, in 2011, Time magazine named Wallace’s speech the “best commencement speech”; indeed, numerous other publications have rated Wallace’s commencement address as one of the “greatest.” For students, college graduation marks a time at which, with diploma in hand, you walk off the stage and look forward to the next phase of life. Often, colleges shed light on the important nature of graduation with the invitation of a keynote commencement speaker. It's a process that even extends to the President of the United States. He was famous for his 1996 novel “infinite jest” which was cited by time magazine as one of the 100 best English- language novels from 1923-2005.
Wallace’s first version of Kenyon Commencement speech was directed to mixed audience of parents, graduating students. In the beginning of his speech, his engagement with his audience by greeting, calling them, parents and congratulation to Kenyon class of 2005. He then grabbed their attention by starting a short story of two young fish swimming a long and meeting with an older wise fish swimming the other way. This short story grabbed everybody’s attention regardless of their age, All of these addresses could be bundled together with several common motifs: follow your dreams, you can achieve anything and do whatever is most pleasurable. These are all common themes of commencement addresses at just about every high school in the country. However, a commencement address from David Foster Wallace most likely would have been more straight-forward, more humorous and in the end, more beneficial. These are exactly the same