Textual Analysis "This is Water"
November 1,2013
Textual Analysis of “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace In David Foster Wallace’s graduation speech, “This is Water”, presented to Kenyan College’s graduating class of 2005, Wallace persuades the class to view the world as whole instead of individually. Wallace argues that we should not feel as if the world revolves around only our needs but also the needs of others but he makes a point to state that everyone has a choice of how to view the world. His argument is obvious but commonly overlooked by many. Through his personal experiences and his examples provided in the speech, all three rhetorical appeals, ethos, logos and pathos, are used but he argues mostly through the use of pathos. David Foster Wallace establishes his creditability through his use of ethos and makes it clear he does not want to preach or oversee the reader. He simply does not want the reader to think that we are listening to someone who holds a higher authority than the average person. In the beginning of the essay, after he tells the story of the two young fish who do not know what water is, he states, “if at this moment, you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise old fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please do not be.” In order to keep the reader interested, he does not want to seem like an opposing bossy figure to the reader by seemingly just telling us what to do. He places himself at a lower level and points out his flaws to make himself seem just as human as the rest of us. For example, Wallace bluntly admits his flaws when he says, “A huge percentage of stuff I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded.” This Humility that Wallace provides in the essay, helps to show the reader he does want to be someone who he is not. He acknowledges he is not perfect and has gathered the information he is about to present from his past personal experiences, mistakes, and thoughts. In the essay,
Textual Analysis of “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace In David Foster Wallace’s graduation speech, “This is Water”, presented to Kenyan College’s graduating class of 2005, Wallace persuades the class to view the world as whole instead of individually. Wallace argues that we should not feel as if the world revolves around only our needs but also the needs of others but he makes a point to state that everyone has a choice of how to view the world. His argument is obvious but commonly overlooked by many. Through his personal experiences and his examples provided in the speech, all three rhetorical appeals, ethos, logos and pathos, are used but he argues mostly through the use of pathos. David Foster Wallace establishes his creditability through his use of ethos and makes it clear he does not want to preach or oversee the reader. He simply does not want the reader to think that we are listening to someone who holds a higher authority than the average person. In the beginning of the essay, after he tells the story of the two young fish who do not know what water is, he states, “if at this moment, you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise old fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please do not be.” In order to keep the reader interested, he does not want to seem like an opposing bossy figure to the reader by seemingly just telling us what to do. He places himself at a lower level and points out his flaws to make himself seem just as human as the rest of us. For example, Wallace bluntly admits his flaws when he says, “A huge percentage of stuff I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded.” This Humility that Wallace provides in the essay, helps to show the reader he does want to be someone who he is not. He acknowledges he is not perfect and has gathered the information he is about to present from his past personal experiences, mistakes, and thoughts. In the essay,