David Foster Essay

Wake-up, go to work, watch television, go to sleep. College students fear that life after school will be a routine and, David Wallace in his speech, “The 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address” (May 21, 2005), agrees that after entering the workforce life will be repetitive but argues to students that with their education they can look at life in a different perspective, with their education they would be able to understand the hardships others face and appreciate the more annoying routines. Wallace…

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…

My interest in postmodernism was spurred by my reading of David Foster Wallace (DFW)’s Infinite Jest which the New York Times summarized by saying, “The overall effect is something like a sleek Vonnegut chassis wrapped in layers of post-millennial Zola. Mr. Wallace's... fiction reveals him as a student of literary post-modernists... flirting with metafictional tropes and self-referential narratives. (NYT)”. The New York Times is an incredibly well respected paper whose reputation depends on its…

From the beginning of recorded history, speeches have a tendency to be influential as they connect with their audience and illicit a specific thought or emotion. Continuing this custom, writer David Foster Wallace delivered his compelling commencement speech aptly titled, “Commencement Speech,” to an audience of students at Kenyon College in 2005. His purpose is to make the audience aware of our ‘default-setting’ of thinking. His ability to connect with his audience via word choice and the…

From the story Good People by David Foster Wallace, I feel Lane A. Dean Jr. experiences a change is perspective faith, love, fear, and courage as it relates to his girlfriend, Sheri Fisher, becoming pregnant. He struggles with wanting to take the easy path and support Sheri in aborting the baby, yet his heart and soul is weighting heavy on him that abortion is wrong, a sin, and does not go with the values of Sheri, himself or their families. Due to this, he begins to question his on faith and…

As part of Harvard’s notable Alumni, David Foster Wallace published many notable works which were met by mixed, but impressed critical reviews. In his article “This Is Water,” David Foster Wallace effectively encourages his audience to practice thinking in a way different from their “default setting,” in order to have a more peaceful, and open-minded lifestyle. Ironically, Wallace himself couldn't escape the depression that had plagued him for 20 years, and he committed suicide by hanging…

While reading David Foster Wallace's "This is Water," I realized how much I understood what he was communicating. I was thinking why the young fish did not ask the older fish what water is. The young fish could have learned something new. Maybe the young fish did not want to embarrass itself because the way the older fish asked the question makes it seem like every fish should know what water is. The young fish did ask the other young fish, but they are probably friends and have the same…

such as adult life, capital punishment, school shootings, and how my own mind works. They all received critical acclaim and it is obvious why. All the authors cause their readers to question the way they have been looking and going about things. David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech to Kenyon College graduates has received praise because of his ability to break the set pattern of commencement speeches. All are filled with “helpful” advice that are meant to inspire kids to go the distance.…

Film makers spend countless hours studying what makes a film a success. “FX Porn” is an article written by David Foster Wallace in the article he explains how all big producers go through the same strategic route to make a new film that they’re working on a block buster hit. We are walked through the process and given great examples, weather it be through famous actors, cliché scenes, or big budget actions clips it shows that they all do the same thing. Although I do love the big scenes filled…

David Foster Wallace’s The Devil Is a Busy Man begins with the sentence “Three weeks ago, I did a nice thing for someone” and begins again the conversation that echoes throughout the rest of his book, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, about the narcissistic nature of man. This story which qualifies the authenticity and “value” of a good deed based on its anonymity does so under the idea that if a good deed is made public by someone who did the deed then it was done more for one’s own personal…