What Is The Tone Of David Foster Wallace's Commencement Speech

David Foster Wallace: Commencement Speech Commencement speeches are something every graduate is familiar with. Depending on what level you’re graduating from, the speakers could range from your best friend from Kindergarten, to a Politician or Celebrity. Commencement speeches are supposed to give us a taste of real life, while still inspiring us to be the best we can be. It seems rare that you’ll have a speaker who will break things down to you, and be completely and unabashedly honest, but David Foster Wallace does just that in his informal speech to the graduating class of Kenyon College. Wallace starts with a story about two fish meeting an older fish in passing, who asks them how the water is. Neither of the younger fish question his meaning, until later in the story when one fish turns to the other and asks “’…What the hell is water?’”(653). I think by starting off with that story, Wallace is setting the tone for the rest of his speech as someone who is going to be honest and truthful about the future that awaits the graduates in the real world.
Liberal arts are defined as “college or university studies (as language, philosophy, literature, abstract science) intended to provide chiefly general knowledge and to develop general intellectual capacities (as reason and judgment) as opposed to professional or vocational skills.” (Merriam-Webster). Wallace however argues that a liberal arts education means being conscious about your thoughts, and having some sense of control over them and the experience you’ll gain from them. That could mean exercising control over what you think, and changing it to benefit more people than just