David Wallace Commencement Speech Analysis
In today’s world, we are subconsciously encouraged to be normal. Normally, unique ideas are often shamed before they can come to life. In David Wallace’s commencement speech to Kenyon University's graduating master students, he urged students to go against the norm and think for themselves. His method of encouragement was a bit unusual but, consequently, the students will take what he asserted into account due to his unusual, but persuasive style. Throughout this speech, Wallace deviates from one example to the next, but he stayed consistent in encouraging students to think for themselves instead of being like a rat in a machine to get cheese. I agree with David Foster Wallace’s thesis that students should get off the crutch of having someone else think for them because his method of thinking allows students to intellectually flourish, and it will merely bring about a studious change in the world.
Wallace’s speech was very anecdotal and allegorical in the sense that he used many examples and stories to explain why students should make their own decisions. In the speech, Wallace states, “It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now” which informs students that it would initially be a struggle to critically think independently.
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His commencement speech was very rich in diction and allegory. In all of his anecdotal stories, he was being allegorical because each one of his stories contributed to why people should go to school to expand their minds instead of to get a good paying career. He suggests that people should want to go against the norm, and think for themselves, so I fully agree with him because the world can be more advanced and complacent if everyone thought for themselves and were ot
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