Graduating college is the beginning of a new life for most. They launch themselves into the work world at full speed, charging ahead to make a path for themselves. They go through their lives in the blink of an eye. Then, by the time that they have aged and are in retirement homes do they realize that they missed out the most important years of their lives because they were too focused on themselves. David Foster Wallace gives a commencement address to young graduates where through his use of the technique, capitalization, he emphasizes the importance of one’s life before death.

In the commencement address given by David Foster Wallace, Wallace chooses to capitalize certain words to drive his point, that every person should take the time to realize that they aren’t the only one in the world, home. The first example of this is about halfway through the address. Wallace states that “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” (XII). By capitalizing the word ‘you’ he is emphasizing how important it is for the reader, or the student he is addressing in this particular case, to be just as aware of the world around them as the world is of them. He also chooses to include not only the physical world that they are immediately surrounded by but also the so-called ‘artificial world.’ This world consists of the internet and the various shows that cable channels produce. Despite these not being in the physical world they are just as important to be aware of and to experience what is going on in them, but one should not just be aware and experience these they should also be aware and experience the world that surrounds them. Overall, Wallace wants the students to stop what they are doing for a minute, an hour, or just even a moment and experience their life in the world around them instead of bypassing everything that’s happening. Only then, to find out that after many years have passed that they have made a mistake by not experiencing all that the world had to offer them when they were younger.  

The second example is further along in the address, during one of his anecdote where he is going about one of his routine trips to the grocery store. “…if I don’t make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I’m gonna be pissed and miserable every time I have to shop. Because my natural default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really about me. About MY hungriness and MY fatigue and MY desire just to get home, and it’s going to seem for all the world like everybody else is just in my way” (Wallace XIV). Wallace’s choice to capitalize the word ‘my’ emphasizes the fact that if he doesn’t make a conscious decision on how to think he will be sucked into the common thought; that the world revolves around him and only him. By doing this, he is making the point that despite this being a common thought we should still try and avoid being sucked into it.

The third example is at the end of the commencement address when he is wrapping up his point into a nicely wrapped package with a bow on top. “The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death. It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real an essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time…” (Wallace XVII). In Wallace’s final attempt to drive his point home he goes so far as to spell out “the capital-T Truth.” Thus, preparing the listener/ reader for how important his next statement is. That statement is that “life BEFORE death” is the most important thing that any one person can have. That it is so important to live your life to the extreme because you only have one and it would be a damn shame to waste it. 

Throughout Wallace’s commencement address he consistently capitalizes words that he hopes will drive his point further home such as, ‘you,’ ‘my,’ and ‘before.’ All of these words share a common ground. That being that the point in capitalizing them reinforces the idea that the world is large and the opportunities that it holds are infinite and if you fly through life thinking only about yourself and not what the world has to offer then you’re cheating yourself and therefore, “I wish you way more than luck” (Wallace XVII). 
