Kenyon Speech

The Kenyon Commencement Address is a commencement speech by David Foster Wallace. He said this speech to the graduating class of 2005 at Kenyon College. This speech is about the world and how we interact within it. Like the analogy he used in the speech we are like fish that don’t notice the water around us.

In our lives we are faced with choices. These choices affect us and the people around us. As we grow up we will get accustomed to the repetitive life of an adult. We sometimes must stop and think about what is happened around us. If someone is speeding you must think of the situation they are in. They could be in a rush to the hospital because someone is dying. The lady at the cash register might be working slowly because she is having a hard time at home and might be tired. You must choose to open up and try to understand others.

Originally I wouldn’t have look at someone and tried to understand his or her situation, but now it seems right to do so. Instead of sitting there and complaining about everything in life I could look at it through someone else’s eyes. Everyone has something that they might be dealing with, they just express it in actions instead of words. I hope to accept this new view of life and hopefully it will help me.

People clap at those points in the speech because they might agree with him. They have someone telling them about this new perspective on life. It opened their eyes to what they should be doing or how to understand life. They could also be clapping because they have a false interpretation of what he is saying. He used a lot of irony, which could have gone over some people’s heads.

David Foster Wallace’s speech was an eye opener. It changed the life of the students that were listening to him. It led them to revaluate their lives. Your life is more complex than it seems because it ties in with other people’s lives. You have to put yourself in their shoes to understand their actions.