Imagine living life on autopilot, all the time. Life would get boring, an individual  would feel like there is no point of life. The lack of awareness makes an individual a prisoner to their body day in and day out. David Foster Wallace portrays the idea, that if an individual live the normal adult life where you do the sam thing day in and day out, are close-minded and selfish,they become a prisoner to their own body, in his commencement speech, “This is Water.” He also has the valid argument that if people don't make choices on how to think, they will live accustomed to a self-centered view of the world and live dull lives.  Wallace uses different rhetorical devices to aid in getting his point across in his speech. His most effective device he uses would have to be the changing of point of view, which gains a connection between the audience and the speaker in his speech. He also uses the appeal to ethos and logos to aid in the effectiveness of his speech to engage the audience and to make his speech more memorable. 

Wallace’s choice to vary the use of first and second point of view has many benefits like, giving Wallace the ability to get his audience involved in his thinking process In this part of his speech the audience should realize the change in point of view. ”Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be…  The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor.” He changed from talking about himself to talking about the crowd, so they can feel as if  they’re actually experiencing what he is talking about. The audience will be able to get a greater connection to what Wallace it talking about, therefore giving them something to remember. Which is an individual  can change their “default setting” because the world is sitting right in front of them , no matter where they look so why not change that setting?  Therefore, the audience is staying focused on his speech and is actually comprehending what he is saying, instead of losing interest and focusing on something else. The audience gets absorbed into his speech from continuous change in the point of view. He is successful in this technique because rather than giving an argument with facts that support it, he is giving real life examples.

By changing his point of view, he is also able to make his speech appear more as a conversation. By creating this conversational style speech, Wallace is able to encourage the audience to become more engaged in his speech, while being able to relate to his ideas. It also, makes it seem like Wallace is having a conversation with them, making it easier to understand.  As a result, he is able to close the gap between the speaker and the audience with this handy technique. By giving a speech that is exciting and keeps the audiences attention , they will realize that if their life is not boring, they will stay in tune with it rather than basically living on autopilot, relating to one of his main arguments.

Wallace uses appeals to ethos to his advantage in his commencement speech. By using this technique he gets the audience to relate to him and he establishes his credibility.  Wallace nonchalantly tell this audience, “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.”(Wallace X)  The audience is put at ease because, if you're not a wise fish, you wouldn't be asked to give a speech and he doesn't plan on being pompous, since that is what the old wise fish would more than likely do. Therefore, the audience realizesWallace does know what he is talking about; gaining his credibility even more.  Another example of how Wallace appeals to ethos is when he says “If you're like me as a student you've never liked hearing this, and you then to feel a bit instead by the claim that you needed anybody to teach you how to think”(Wallace XI).  By relating to the audience on a student level, by talking as a if he is one of them and not a superior, they are trusting him and believe what he is saying is true, therefore taking the advice he has to give them. Wallace is outdoing the the ordinary commencement speech format by relating to his audience.

 The appeal to logos is used throughout Wallace’s speech. The most prominent appeal was with a story that is found in the beginning of his speech. The story is about an atheist who is stranded in the Arctic, he asks God for help, if he is real. Two eskimos just happened to walk by and saved him from freezing to death by taking him back to their camp. One story is about an atheist who is stranded in the arctic, he asks god for help, two eskimos just happen to walk by and help him back. The atheist still insisted God does not exist, “No, man, all that was was a couple Eskimos happened to come wandering by and showed me the way back to our camp.” The audience logically concludes that the atheist suffers from flaws in his reasoning. The atheist had a close-minded lookout on life, he was not accepting of God and believed it was not his working, making him a prisoner to his own body, due to the fact he could open up to different ideas.

Wallace uses the repetition of a phase ‘death’ throughout his speech. Death in his speech is from the imprisonment of an individuals body from living a life without making choices, without thinking, and the lack of awareness. With this ‘lack of awareness’ an individual will most certainly experience death because you're not living life aware of things going on around you. As he states in his speech, "It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head... suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.”(Wallace XIII) Wallace is conveying the idea that, your imprisonment starts in the individuals  head and could possibly get accustomed to all these adult things that happen almost automatically. With  no variety in his or her life. The individual could begin to feel the effects of it, like depression. You begin to ponder on it and over think, with the life being sucked out of them. All this thinking is going on in the individual’s head, therefore they take out what is at fault for all the overthinking by shooting themselves in head.  Which if an individual  continues to go “through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your own head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely imperially alone day in and day out”(Wallace XII)  By breaking down the last quote, the audience is able to understand that Wallace is basically hinting towards the fact that once we are adults we can either live a life that is on autopilot, day in and day out, or we can actually do something about it. 

David Foster Wallace believes a life that is lived without awareness turns you into a prisoner of your own body. Also, without thinking your way through life and making your own choices, you will view the world in a self-centered way. Wallace successfully uses repetition pertaining to death, constant changes in the point of view, and appealing to ethos and logos to help the audience interpret the message he is trying to convey in his commencement speech. 
