One of the finest commencement speeches was given by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College. Wallace’s speech can be viewed as enlightening to those who are often blindly single-minded. It forces the audience to take a look at the way they approach everyday situations, rather than being self-centered, consider others before yourself. However, many overlook Wallace’s impeccable rhetorical maneuvers, focusing on the constant clichés and fictional anecdotes used. What people don’t realize is these clichés and fictional anecdotes are what make Wallace’s speech effective and reinforce the basic principles we were taught as a child, to share and think of others before ourselves. Overlooking Wallace’s flawless technique is doing a disservice to …show more content…
He does not put himself on a pedestal. Everyone is sometimes selfish, oblivious, close-minded, and much more, but he is persuading the audience to believe that you can get more out of life if you chose to see it from all sides, to think with a purpose. He is not accusing the audience of not being able to think, it’s the way in which we think needs to be trained. Throughout Wallace’s commencement, he uses different scenarios to explain how easy it is to become a single-minded person. Each time he uses a different example it relates back to his main point that we must condition our minds to think a different way that we have been for the past umpteen years of our life. It is no longer “About MY hungriness and MY fatigue and MY desire to just get home, and it’s going to seem for all the world like everybody else is just in my way,” as Wallace use of repetition and emphasis on “MY” displays his argument in a clear manner the way he wanted it to be understood. He relates our desires of “MY” to our ability to change, but only we have the power to make ourselves change, no one else. We need to condition ourselves to think of others before ourselves, “It’s a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting which is to be deeply and literally
In the speech “Inaugural Address January 14, 1963” Spoken by Governor George C. Wallace, There are times in his speech where he refers to past events, For example, he refers to Jefferson Davis , he also refers to when he was in Japan during the war, and lastly he refers to Hitler's government.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy delivered one of the most important American speeches after being sworn in as president on January 20, 1961. His inauguration speech was so influential that it seized the nation’s attention, and quotes from it are still clearly remembered by people today. It is considered one of the best speeches ever written and ever delivered. It presents a strong appeal to pathos, ethos, and logos and accomplishes what any speaker strives for – it speaks straight to the heart of the audience and inspires people.
Fredrick Douglas, a freed slave, delivered a speech on July fourth 1852. This speech highlighted the hypocrisy of the United States and revealed how citizens, slaves in particular, perceived Independence Day. Douglas’s speech exposed the nation, with a well constructed argument that effectively solidified the main and most important point. Douglas used several rhetorical strategies throughout his speech to argue his side. Fredrick Douglas used the rhetorical devices, ethos to gain credibility, allusions to show comparisons, and pathos to spark an emotional response in his speech to defend his claim about the hypocrisy of Independence Day.
Washington’s first term as president was supposed to end in 1792, but his colleagues were reluctant to lose him as their leader of numerous qualities and sound judgment, and therefore, urged him to stay on for another term. On February 13, 1793, Washington was again unanimously elected president. During his second term, he pushed for the United States to establish neutrality in international conflicts, and also establish its own identity rather than rely on other nations. Washington also saw the emergence of two opposing political parties, the Federalists and the Republicans, an idea of which he was opposed. As he neared the end of his second term, Washington grew tired, thus, attacks by political opponents and other burdens of the presidency
Have you ever stopped to think about what you were thinking? Or have ever spaced out and knew you were spaced out but didn’t want to space back out? Have you ever noticed that you are always thinking, even if you think you’re not thinking, you’re still thinking? Thinking has a lot to do with perspective in my opinion; it all depends on your own experience and thoughts about the situation you’re thinking about.
On September 19, 1796, first President of the United States of America - George Washington - wrote a letter commonly known as Farewell Address, which was published in a Philadelphia’s newspaper called American Daily Advertiser for every citizen to read it – nine years after the signing of the Constitution. This open letter was actually drafted and prepared in 1792, when Washington was planning to retire after working a single term in office; but after his Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, and his Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton were convinced and feared that the divisions between the Federalist and Republicans would set the country apart with the absence of a strong leader like George Washington, he decided to serve for a second term. The purpose of the letter was to offer advice to the next president, as he warned about political factions and permanent alliances.
Both Wallace and McCandless propose that life should be challenged in order to live the most fulfilling life, however the two differ in the ways they think life should be challenged. Wallace challenges the “default settings” in his life by attempting to change the way he thinks and make his thoughts more conscious of the society around him as opposed to self-centered thoughts. He describes it on page 5 saying, “Thinking this way is my natural default-setting. It 's the automatic, unconscious way that I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life when I 'm operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the center of the world and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world 's priorities”. Wallace believes in saying this that humans are inherently selfish creatures. This natural selfishness stems from basic animalistic fight or flight reflexes; humans maintain selfishness because they are always avidly rooting for their own survival. Wallace is of the belief that doing this is outdated, and we are far beyond the point of basic animal instincts. Because of this we should be able to actively change our thoughts to represent a state of mind that more closely reflects the society that we live in now. In order to break free of the animalistic impulses we must constantly make the conscious decisions to see life beyond ourselves, which would prove impossible for an animal but possible for the human who possesses generative
Both, Quindlen’s and Wallace’s speeches made a great point about life and how people should view and live it. Both shared many things in common. Throughout their speeches, both shared a common theme; live life to the fullest and in the moment, being selfless and empathic.
Franklin D. Roosevelt speech was one of the most empowering and encouraging speeches of all time. He gave americans a reason see the amazing new ways of freedom we will eventually be able live by fighting and winning this war. “We are fighting today for security, for progress, and for peace, not only for ourselves but for all men, not only for one generation but for all generations”. He makes sure everyone understands that we need to be willing to risk it all and we must strive to be ten stronger than any other army. This speech has changed many people's perceptions on this war we are about enter. He wants to explain the importance of the upcoming war. Everyone needs to know they things may become tough but note that only the strong will survive, which is us the United States. We will show why United States is the the strongest army. Freedom will be the next step for our country and our families.
For this second paper we will be looking at two of my favorite articles/books we’ve had to read for this semester so far. The David Wallace Commencement address, which focuses primarily the concept of how we perceive and worship things throughout our daily lives. The Augustine book, looks at the human soul and our drives to complete tasks that benefit us and our way of rational and non-rational though the use of our free will. Both of theses readings in a sensible aim at administering the same message, that we are capable of choosing how we look at the world and what we do with what we have. In order to justify that statement, we will look into these readings and our lectures to find evidence that these points exist; particularly the aspects
Describe what you think was Wallace's most important lesson to his audience about the meaning of a well-lived life.
A Rhetorical Analysis of Steve Jobs Commencement Speech for Stanford University's Graduating Class of 2005: Jobs titled his speech "You've got to find what you love." Steve Jobs is best known as an American entrepreneur, inventor and industrial designer. He was the cofounder, chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. and founder, CEO and chairman of Pixar Animation Studios. Jobs and cofounder of Apple Inc. Steve Wozniak are wildly recognized as pioneers of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s.
Wallace shifts into describing scenarios and the importance of not being self-centered. Wallace continues to explain his reasoning by telling a realistic situation about the boring, stressful average day of an adult life. Wallace describes an average person who has just worked a full day, only to find there is no food in the house. The story shifts to a tense tone when at the grocery store the person encounters numerous, other frustrating situations that delay the person from getting home and relaxing. This scenario makes an emotional connection with the graduates, as this is something they will face. Wallace builds this scenario around the claim that if a person doesn’t make a “conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention
As 44th President of the United States of America, Barrack Obama, in his 2009 Inaugural speech, includes references from our founding fathers on how if we stick to our values and work together, we will be successful. This expresses what his plans for his presidency are, and what he hopes to accomplish within his time in office. He addresses the nation and the rest of the world as well.
The "Emancipation Proclamation" speech was actually intended for most of the people that would free the slaves, not to the slaves. According to Rollyson the proclamation was not intended for the slave, blacks, or former slaves. The “Emancipation Proclamation” speech was during the Antislavery Movement or what some people call it the Abolitionist Movement, during the 1960's. The main leaders of the abolitionist movement were Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas. The point of Lincoln writing the speech about emancipating the slaves was to free the slaves and win the civil war. Lincoln had written a speech named "The Emancipation Proclamation". He wrote this speech and signed it in January of 1863, in Washington, D.C. The theme of the speech