“About all a commencement speaker can really do is to suggest a couple of things that [he or] she believes really matters” (“Graduation Wisdom”). Sue Monk Kidd stated this while addressing the graduates of Scripps College. On May 21, 2005 Kenyon College graduation welcomed David Foster Wallace, an American novelist, for their commencement address. A prime example of Kidd’s statement, Wallace stated in the address that “suicide’s [victims] are actually long dead before they pull the trigger” (Wallace 4). His address titled This Is Water was delivered to the graduating class of 2005 before taking his own life in 2008. Wallace establishes trust with his audience through the use of informal language during his speech. He achieves validity in his
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Tuition and fees total to about just under $50,000 per year (“About Kenyon”). Kenyon College also states on their website that they “welcome openness.” Typically, liberal arts students are very open to new experiences provided by interactions with new people with varying/different ideals. Wallace’s target audience consisted of hundreds of liberal arts graduate students. With this in mind, Wallace’s speech can be seen as something he believed his audience would be receptive to upon …show more content…
Wallace’s explanation of American adult life or the “day in day out” phrase is a synopsis of a regular day for the typical white-collar American. While the message is delivered to the graduates, its impact was received by the parents and family members. Although he specifies this is an experience of the typical white-collar American, the situations given were universal frustrations such as having to buy groceries, traffic, waiting in line during the end-of-day rush, etc (Wallace 5). These are all common moments of almost any typical American citizen, meaning that when advising the graduates to adjust to turning off their default settings in these moments can also be done by members outside of the audience since they are given these same opportunities. This connection with the parents and families of the graduates advocates the message of “day in and day out” and delivers the message’s validity. This form of validation deemed Wallace’s words as logical and accurate as it had been approved by this group of somewhat authority
Tuition and fees total to about just under $50,000 per year (“About Kenyon”). Kenyon College also states on their website that they “welcome openness.” Typically, liberal arts students are very open to new experiences provided by interactions with new people with varying/different ideals. Wallace’s target audience consisted of hundreds of liberal arts graduate students. With this in mind, Wallace’s speech can be seen as something he believed his audience would be receptive to upon …show more content…
Wallace’s explanation of American adult life or the “day in day out” phrase is a synopsis of a regular day for the typical white-collar American. While the message is delivered to the graduates, its impact was received by the parents and family members. Although he specifies this is an experience of the typical white-collar American, the situations given were universal frustrations such as having to buy groceries, traffic, waiting in line during the end-of-day rush, etc (Wallace 5). These are all common moments of almost any typical American citizen, meaning that when advising the graduates to adjust to turning off their default settings in these moments can also be done by members outside of the audience since they are given these same opportunities. This connection with the parents and families of the graduates advocates the message of “day in and day out” and delivers the message’s validity. This form of validation deemed Wallace’s words as logical and accurate as it had been approved by this group of somewhat authority