Analysis Of David Foster Wallace's Essay: Authority And American Usage

The ability for people to look at a situation from a different perspective is vital in today’s globalized society. Diversity is the most important, core attribute we each share that gives us the ability to assess new situations through our diverse backgrounds and upbringings. Unlike Patrick J. Buchanan’s argument in his essay titled “Deconstructing America,” diversity is a necessity in America’s culture as opposed to the burden it is described as. Conversely, Fredrickson 's essay titled “Models of American Ethnic Relations: A Historical Perspective,” illustrated a more precise version of American history that disproves Buchanan’s ethnocentric ideologies. Buchanan speaks of diversity on a narrow, one-way street. His imprecise interpretations

Having your audience understand the purpose of a reading is determined by the author’s choice of words and valid information to support the purpose, but none of those would make sense without an explanation for that detail. David Foster Wallace, the commencement speaker of the speech “This is Water” and Paul Bloom author of the online magazine article “The Baby in the Well” are two good examples of writing that is able understand the purpose’s of each written piece . Wallace’s purpose is that it is graduates’ responsibility to create their own future and but be able to think in an unselfish matter. Bloom’s purpose is that his audience needs to be critical of empathy because sometimes empathy is not n’t automatically the best response. Wallace

Being supposedly made up on the spot, Noah S. Sweat did not have time to compose an eloquent speech about a controversial topic. He instead spoke a purely unfactual and highly descriptive banter using doublespeak to voice his opinion of whiskey. Both sides of his argument include impactual adjectives to describe the drink. Or as Mr. Sweat would say on line 6, “the devil’s brew,” or on line 12, “the philosophic wine”. Each side of his argument is entirely one sentence long, implying that he emotionally fuels his speech as he works out his thoughts with the audience as one thought flows to the other. He uses metaphors also to describe whiskey; he sets situations which one could “feel” how whiskey affects the person. Mr. Sweat

Regardless of age, gender, and race, everyone encounters different problems in his or her daily life. Whether the problems are as simple as getting up in the morning or untangling the headphones, people need to find a solution to solve them. The only thing that matters is what solutions they will seek. In David Foster Wallace’s “Good People,” he narrates a story about two college students, Lane Dean, Jr. and Sheri Fisher, who face a dilemma of choosing between either abortion or keeping their baby. They are torn between these choices because they come from a religious family, in which abortion is unethical and immoral. Thus, the couple is stuck in a battle between right and wrong as well as good and evil. As the story proceeds, one will notice that Wallace uses a third person point of view to depict his character, Lane Dean, in order to let readers gain a better understanding of the character’s struggles, feelings, and thoughts.

As the fireworks explode in the night sky to celebrate Independence Day, “Born in the U.S.A.” by Bruce Springsteen plays loudly for the audience to hear. As the men, women, and children bellow out the chorus proudly, they never seem to grasp its intended meaning. By studying the appeals and irony used in Springsteen’s lyrics, it is easy to see how Springsteen’s message of the poor treatment of Vietnam War veterans is misconstrued by millions of listeners into American pride. Springsteen’s intended audience is a group made up of mainly white, blue collar Americans- a group not likely to accept criticism of America. Through unclear lyrics and a poorly selected audience, Springsteen’s hit “Born in the U.S.A.” is a rhetorical failure.

In life people try to comfort others in times of grieving. Leonard Pitts comforts his readers in his article, “We will go forward from this moment ” by trying to make since of the 9/11 attack. Pitts uses emotion and logic to persuade the Americans that the terrorists can do what they want to America, but America is tough enough to handle it.

In the speech "This is Water" David Foster Wallace attempts to explain how the general populace is self-centered and what a person can do to change the "default setting" within our mind. Wallace's main point is to get his audience to understand and realize that they have a daily choice to make between being inconsiderate and acknowledging those around them. They can either remain conceited and unsympathetic towards others, or they can change and attempt to see and understand the situations of those around them as they go through their daily trials.

The general argument by David Foster Wallace in his work "This is Water" is that sometimes the most obvious realities are the hardest to comprehend. More specifically, he argues that thinking negatively is not a choice but a natural setting and we need to start thinking cognitively and outside the box. Wallace performs this speech for a group of graduating college students to prepare them for the future life they are about to embark on. He includes the grocery store example so that the reader's can connect to the story because they have gone through that situation themselves; he is trying to connect to the audience. In my opinion, this source is different from all

The lobster is a disgustingly beautiful creature, known for its delicate taste, menacing shell and controversy. In his essay, “Consider the Lobster”, David Foster Wallace describes the events and festivities of the Maine Lobster Festival and the history of the lobster to deliver a poignant message about the moral implications of killing and eating animals. Wallace is able to develop his position and vividly capture the audience’s attention through a strong use of humor, deliberate tonal shifts and a unique structure.

Booker T. Washington is by far one of the brightest and strongest minds from his time. During his Atlanta Exposition address he displays his intellect masterfully. From Mr. Washington’s use of language he was able to seamlessly piece together a speech that we still analyse to this day. Mr. Washington use of rhetoric explains and enlightens the circumstances of freed African Americans trying to fit into communities in the south. From mistreatment and racism still present in the newly freed people.

The consumption of animal meat is highly accepted in today’s society, however, the methods, in which the animals are killed are sometimes questioned for their cruelty. David Wallace, in considering the Lobster, takes the readers to the Maine Lobster Festival, where the consumption of lobsters is exploited, and the festival's attendees celebrate these acts. However, the essay goes furthermore than narrating the lobster’s festival, because through sensory details, and different techniques, he makes the readers question society’s morality. By stressing the cruelty it takes boiling lobsters alive, Wallace is capable of creating a sense of awareness in society decisions that demonstrate their corrupted morality, and how it affects directly others (like lobsters)

Theodore Roosevelt, in his compassionate letter to his son “The Proper Place for Sports” (1903), implies that football or sports in general shouldn’t take priority over more urgent responsibilities. Roosevelt supports his opinion by incorporating insightful historical events, acknowledging the potentially reasonable opposing view, and implementing compelling anaphora. His purpose is prevent his son, Ted, from completely being engulfed by his demanding dream of joining his school football team in order to convince him to focus on other vital duties, such as schoolwork. Roosevelt adopts a sympathetic tone (“I am proud of your pluck, and I greatly admire football… But the very things that make it a good game make it a rough game”) aimed to his

Wallace shows his literary intellect in his use of the rhetorical device. He describes the nod to the opposition when he details the way we are not supposed to think by calling it our “default setting”. He starts off by saying that he would have tendencies to feel like he was the center of the world, but excuses that behavior by saying “It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth” (. The author explains the consequences of not controlling your default setting by continuing his story about the trip to the grocery store. Wallace declares “ Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines give me time to think, and if I don 't make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I 'm

Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is quoted as saying, “The limits of my language means the limits of my world,” a sentiment heroically displayed in the novel 1984, written by George Orwell. Within the confines of the story of Winston, a man living in Oceania under the complete and total control of the Party, Orwell accurately displays the limited language forced upon the citizens and explains the inexplicable way the party destroyed the past in order to completely control the future of its members. Furthermore, Orwell intricately examines the devolution of language and the subsequent effects on the intellect of citizens and their personal belief systems. Upon reviewing and examining Old English and Middle English prose, it has become blatantly

Although one 's idea of Utopianism is unique to one’s beliefs, the genre of Utopian and Dystopian fiction is commonly tackled in novels, from which the authors convey the idea of a depraved society through detailing inhumane characteristics which would be seen unacceptable to any world citizen. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and 1984 by George Orwell authors create tyrannical governments responsible for a set of callous actions such as the eradication of freedom of speech and ideological control over their population’s mentality. These wrongdoings are achieved through the application of methods that obligate people to act as machines, such as the ad campaigns in Brave New World and the implementation of the Newspeak dictionary in 1984. As Orwell creates the ministry of truth as a means to demonstrate the lack of ideological freedom in oceania, Huxley discusses the concept of World Controllers and the use of SOMA as examples of the alienated society of Brave New World.