English

1. For this essay you have been asked to read and analyze David Foster Wallace’s 2005 Commencement Speech. Wallace’s asserts that, “’Learning how to think’ really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience” (2). Wallace uses various examples in an attempt to justify the aforementioned argument. At the end of the Wall Street Journal’s transcription of Wallace’s speech we are informed that he killed himself in the fall of 2008. Since his speech references life, death and freedom, it is not out of the question to think about the “philosophy” of the speech in relation to its creator.

Write an essay that analyzes Wallace’s suicide undermines, or confirms the central argument of his graduation speech. You must analyze the examples he provides in his speech. Keep in mind that your essay needs: a clearly defined thesis statement that addresses the topic, at least 3 independent main ideas, textual evidence and analysis that satisfies the topic.

http://www.metastatic.org/text/This%20is%20Water.pdf