David Foster Wallace's Speech On Water

The Color of Water, written by James McBride is a non-fiction book that takes place in New York in the 1950’s. James tells his story of struggle of growing up as a mixed white and African American boy and his search to find and understand his own identity. He tells the story of his childhood as well as his mother’s life and what struggles she endured. She grew up Jewish and then conformed to Christianity, then marring and having children with a black man. No matter what colour James and his siblings are his mother still strived to raise them to the best of her ability in a Christ-like manner. In this book James talks explains his struggle and his siblings struggle to attempt to fit into the society. While society had certain negative expectations for James and his family because of their skin colour. No matter what struggles James and his family endured, whether it was poverty, change and transition, the cruelness of society or the struggle of living without a father they

In The Color of Water by James McBride he faces plenty of obstacles in his life. One that I think was very important during his childhood is in chapter 14 where makes a few bad choices after his stepfather, Hunter Jordan, dies. Since James didn't get to know his biological father, Hunter was the closest he ever came to having one. He makes it clear that his family loved Hunter and when he died they were all devastated but none as much as their mother. It's safe to say she wasn't the same and that can be seen when McBride says "She sent us off to school and tried to maintain her crazy house as usual, ranting about this and that, but the fire was gone" (McBride, 137). I think his mother's behavior no doubt had some effect on the way he acted.

The article Into the Dark Water by Lauren Tarshis is about when the most massive, high in technology, indestructible ship sunk. The Titanic of course. Also when passenger and survivor Jack Thayer shared his journey, through his writing with author Lauren Tarshis. It makes the article more intriguing to use quotes because it makes you feel as if you are on the ship on that night.

It is important to find out who you are. In order to find out who you are, you must start you’re roots and if you have no roots or are unable to reach them, finding where you came from to help find yourself becomes really difficult. Also it’s hard to find yourself when you have others telling you who you are and who you are supposed to be. These two put together makes it extremely hard to find yourself. In James McBride’s memoir The Color of Water, James McBride has conflicting feelings of being biracial illustrates how important it is to know where you came from and who you are in order to move forward in your life.

In the memoir, The Color of Water, James McBride describes his life and interviews his mother. During his life, James faces many obstacles that affect him. A few people who affect his life in his memoir are his mother, stepfather, and The Chicken Man. Some of these are in positive ways and some are in negative. The Chicken Man has a positive affect on James McBride's life. While his mother and stepfather had more of a negative effect to his life.

he book I read over the summer is called “The Color Of Water” by “James McBride” This book tells the story of the author's struggles growing up with racial identity issues. He struggled as a child finding out whether he was black or white, but choose to identify as black. He once questioned his mother what color God was, and she replied that he was the color of water. James had many tough times dealing with household struggling with money and twelve children, but when his stepfather, Hunter Jordan died he fell into a void of drugs, alcohol and thievery. He was sent to Kentucky where his sister lives, and was educated by a man nicknamed “Chicken Man’ on how James was wasting his life. James listened, turned away from his old life and became

In the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address, David Foster Wallace tries to persuade the graduates that education is having awareness. Being educated isn’t about earning a degree or how much knowledge you have but about how you think. Wallace shows that knowing how to think can change the way you look at situations, knowing how to think gives a person situational awareness. Paying attention to situations around you and things about them gives you other options of how to look at them. During his speech, Wallace gives the example of being frustrated in the grocery store after work or while driving in traffic; if you think of different options instead of thinking about yourself then you can look at these situations differently or even feel better.

This is water speech by Davis Foster Wallace talks about how people are selfish/ self-centered and trying to improve but can't be perfect. should be in the moment or "aware" need to know "how to think. People have to think differently about every situation and not let their natural instinct to make a decision because that is not the best solution. Wallace speech is based on what’s adult day to day life would be what they think like the supermarket story that he gave. His speech is a rhetorical stance because his speech is the perfect speech to give to his audience also it fit the aspect of the rhetorical stance.

You, a single individual, are not the center of the world; contrary to the belief many people are fed as children. This Is Water by David Foster Wallace continues well into detail about such. It is a natural human instinct to care more about your personal situation than that of others. We choose to place ourselves first because of the fear of vulnerability. When fellow human beings become obstacles in our lives we label them as any condescending adjective under the sun; often the terms stupid, annoying, infuriating, pig-like, and slow make their appearances. This is only because the individuals have become hindrances to your daily life however most pose no threat. It is difficult to break the mold but it is indeed possible. Every human has

In David Foster Wallace’s speech “Kenyon Commencement Speech”, talks about how an average adult life could be stressful for students that are going to enter the adult life after college. Wallace reflects on himself saying “everything… supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe”(Wall). He thinks most people have this same thought of being selfish. Wallace believes that in every situation people think about themselves and that people could be an interference from accomplishing their tasks. He refers this as a “natural default setting” for people. People tend to be self-centered and only care that their ideas are more significant than others. He gives an example of drivers with a large vehicle could be frustrating because they take all the space and cause traffic. It could also be that the Hummer cut in front of cars to quickly take a child to a hospital and make it there as soon as possible. Wallace addresses how this change of thinking is about awareness of what could be happening to other people. He shows how people are just important as themselves and they could be going through far much

The water is so much a part of their every-day reality that it goes unnoticed—or, as Wallace mentioned later in his speech, is “hidden in plain sight all around.”

Living in a structured society that allows us to be self-centered and self-absorbed has also allowed us to forget about virtually everything else. Even the most compassionate person has been guilty of even the slightest egotism. However, from the time that we have been able to walk and form mostly full sentences to the time that we have enough mental capacity to form concrete opinions about the world around us, we, or at least, our parents and teachers, have advocated for an unlimited education not only for ourselves but also for our community. When we think of education, we tend to frequently refer back to subjects such as English, math, and science; on the other hand, whether it is a public or private education, we are also learning about ourselves. As we get older and advance to higher levels of schooling, the traditional form of teaching begins to fade, and teachers would rather apply such simple subjects to ourselves and our world, and they ask students, young or old, to ease out of that mindset that they are the “absolute center of the universe” and consider our history as well as our present situation. This concept of self-centeredness and perception is the central theme of David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Kenyon commencement address, in which he expands even further on the effectiveness of education through the use of logos and several anecdotal analogies. In his speech, informally titled “This is Water,” Wallace clarifies that its true meaning pertains more to universal

David Foster Wallace was an American novelist and professor of English and creative writing. In his speech "Water", Wallace uses his fish story as a form of imagery to reflect how naive society tends to react to things that are right in front of their eyes. He also uses the traffic jams and people in the grocery stores as imagery which seems to be his main strategy. Wallace points out how stress can lead up to thinking that we are the center of attention, better known as our "Natural default setting". After we stop thinking that we are the main importance,that everything revolves around us and we are the “Absolute center of the universe,” we can then notice and appreciate

Thesis statement: David Foster Wallace, a former professor at Pomona College in Clairemont, gave a commencement speech entitled “This is Water,” and a few main points he made throughout his speech are ideas that I try to live by.

Water is a necessity for life. Beloved’s rebirth holds the entire meaning of life within water. “A fully dressed woman walked out of the water (50)”. Although Beloved was murdered she continues to live