For many of us, college is a
journey full of ups and downs. While many people look forward to graduation
day, I can almost guarantee that not a lot of people think about who is going
to give the commencement speech or what they are going to talk about. Now, you may be thinking that every commencement speech is basically the same so why does this guy matter? You’d be correct in that assumption; they are all pretty much the same. However, one speech that has stood apart from them all is “This Is Water.” David Foster Wallace gave this commencement speech on May 21st,
2005 to the graduating class of Kenyon College. Since then, his sarcastic and
brutally honest speech has been made into videos, documented in multiple online
databases, and even printed as a small non-fiction novel. David Foster Wallace
was born in Ithaca, New York in 1962 and he tragically took his own life at age
46 in September of 2008. An accomplished author, speaker, and friend, he
published sixteen different literary works, both fiction and nonfiction. All of
his works were published by one company–– Little, Brown and Company–– which is
an American publisher founded in 1837. They are “committed to publishing
fiction of the highest quality and nonfiction of lasting significance.” During
his lifetime, David Foster Wallace was awarded a Lannan Literary Award, a
Whiting Writers’ Award, and the MacArthur Fellowship. His legacy lives on
through The David Foster Wallace Literary Trust; the foundation is currently
donating the proceeds of sales from his collected works, The David Foster Wallace Reader. The proceeds will go to the Tucson
Youth Poetry Slam – a nonprofit that advocates youth literacy, critical
thinking, and youth voice through poetry competitions, workshops, and community
showcases. 
“This Is Water” is classified as a
motivational and persuasive speech in which David Foster Wallace challenges his
audience to choose to live a full and compassionate life from that moment forward. This twenty-two-minute speech became so popular that his published seized the opportunity to memorialize his work and createdThis Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about
Living a Compassionate Life. This nonfiction book is his speech, word for
word, printed out over 137 pages. Pictured to the right is the cover of the
book. Published only a year after his death, the book is available for purchase
online or in stores at a range of four to eleven dollars. If you’re not
interested in purchasing the book, here is a LINK
to the audio and text version of the speech.
Originally
written for a group of college graduates and scholars who worked at Kenyon
College, “This Is Water” became so much more than just another commencement
speech. His words encompass passion, the value of a single choice, life’s
clichés, and the motivation to succeed in whatever life path you choose. I was
curious in my research so I decided to see how this speech ranked in comparison
to others according to the toughest critic: The Google Search Engine. If you
type “Motivational Speeches” into your computer, 22 of the
Most Inspiring Speeches pops up and places Foster Wallace’s speech as
number two. Among the ranks include: J.K. Rowling, Sylvester Stallone, Steve
Jobs, Ellen DeGeneres, and many others. This goes to show “This Is Water” is
comparably unique to other graduation ceremony speeches.
People
who are likely to engage with this text include but are not limited to: a
person who is preparing to write a commencement speech, a person seeking motivation
or how to
handle
stress, future or current college graduates, or even someone who is researching
David Foster Wallace. Situations and motivations for textual engagement range
from research to pure enjoyment to stumbling upon the speech after a deep
Internet dive. In its original context,
the speech was delivered by one person to the masses. An important aspect of
the context was that during the speech, there were no special effects,
technologies, or digital enhancements, only his brutally honest and slightly
sarcastic message. This is significant because it shows that he was not
concealing any bias or ulterior motives other than what he directly told his
audience about. David Foster Wallace’s motivation behind writing and presenting
the speech the manner in which he did can be drawn back to a line within the
speech itself: “It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive
in the adult world day in and day out.” His motivation stems from the belief
that it is the audience’s choice to lead a life worth living. The purpose
behind his powerful words is to inspire the masses that they have that
opportunity to navigate their future day-to-day adult life with compassion,
fearlessness, and faith.
Throughout
his entire speech, David Foster Wallace uses a variety of plain and creative stylistic
strategies and rhetorical devices in order to captivate his audience’s
attention and open accessibility to a wide variety of people. Right away, he
demolishes the speaker to audience barrier by telling his listeners that “[i]f
anyone feels like perspiring, I’d invite you to go ahead because I’m sure going
to.” For the next twenty-two-minutes, he maintains this same level of
conversational and down-to-earth tone with his audience. By speaking to the
graduates of Kenyon College directly and on a personal level, he establishes a
connection that captivates their attention. He never lets his listeners’
thoughts wander because he is constantly saying things like “[a]s I’m sure you
guys know by now…” and “[y]ou get the idea…” The speech begins with a short
story about some fish in the water and directly after, his brutally honest
agenda comes out as he states:
The
story thing turns out to be one of the better, less bullshitty conventions of
the genre, but if you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the
wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don’t be.
I am not the wise old fish. The point of the fish story is merely that the most
obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and
talk about.
In this small part of an overall
larger message, David Foster Wallace reveals three things to his audience. First,
he tells the audience that he is aware of the typical format for commencement
speeches but he generally doesn’t like the style. Because of this, he has
decided to go about it in his own way. Second, he is “not the wise old fish.”
Meaning, that just because he was asked to give a speech to liberal arts
graduates doesn’t mean that he knows the meaning of life; he isn’t about to
tell them everything they need to know or what they should do. That is for them
to figure out. And finally, he clears up any ambiguity in the meaning of that
short story. He makes it clear that he is not going to let his audience listen
to his entire speech without telling them exactly what he is trying to say or
what the point of the story is. All three strategies establish his credibility
with the audience within the first couple of minutes. What surprised me the
most about this speech was how informal and personal it was. The fact that he
remained honest and open during the entire speech made me want to trust him and
pay more attention.
David Foster Wallace makes fun of and
critiques the stereotypical style of commencement speeches in order to create
an open-space with his audience and capture their attention. To the right is a table of readability statistics combined from two different calculators. As you can see, the average
grade level is just under eleven. For a group of college graduates, their comprehension could potentially fall between fourteen and
eighteen. Through the use of hyperbole, irony, metaphors, parables, and simple
diction he was able to create a piece that invited listeners of any race, age,
gender, sexuality, or religion. Specifically, David Foster Wallace uses
hyperbole in order to stress realistic issues, why those issues could be seen
in a negative light, and then reveals how those same situations could be
perceived positively as long as you make the conscious choice to do so. The
point is that it is all relative to the way you choose to take in life.
Written
in a brutally honest filter, this speech advises the audience on how to
navigate through their future day-to-day adult life. The stylistic elements and
rhetorical strategies work together in order to open up reader accessibility
and understanding. This is important because David Foster Wallace’s stylistic choices
allow the masses to understand and benefit from his message: This Is Water. So why does any of this
matter? You have the choice to decide what to stress over, what to celebrate,
or what to forget. This is water and you always have the power.
- Lindsey M.
