
Every year, there are over 1 million commencement speeches ranging from elementary to graduate school levels. No matter what division each speech falls within, most commonly, speeches tend to have a clichéd parable that gives life advice to the graduates and their families. In David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water”, given to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College, Wallace’s parable is much more straight forward than to be expected. Since Wallace was speaking to a liberal arts school, it is most commonly assumed that many of the students believed that they were going to receive a profound statement from a first class writer. However, the message they heard was much simpler and one that most people could take home and live their lives by. Wallace incorporated the ideas of “ethos”, “logos”, and “pathos”, into his speech. These rhetorical themes are used in the speech to help Wallace’s address be delivered in a much more relatable manner. 

According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, the term ethos is defined as “the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations". Instead of acting superior to the audience while giving his speech,  Wallace wanted to convey his message with the tone of a soft-spoken, normal human. Although Wallace was talking to a mere 400 students and several hundred guests, he tried almost immediately to find the characteristic spirit that was going to relate to the specific community of Kenyon. Wallace did not want his intention to be perceived as him simply lecturing the audience on some life lesson; however, he talked to his audience as if they were his closest friends and family. Wallace begins his speech by saying, “If anybody feels like perspiring [cough], I’d advise you to go ahead, because I’m sure going to. In fact I’m gonna”(Wallace,X). Beginning his speech with this casual and common dialogue, it shows that Wallace is trying to build a connection right away with his audience even though he does not know them. After introducing the fish metaphor, which sets the basis of his speech, Wallace even stated, “If you are 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”(Wallace, X). The fact that Wallace feels the need to state his intentions, as the commencement speaker, shows that he is trying desperately to relate to everyone  within this community of liberal arts scholars.   

Even though Wallace’s speech is obviously about how the most common, important realities are often the most difficult to see, Wallace uses logos to persuade the audience of this through the use of religious reason. Logos is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the Word of God, or principle of divine reason and creative order, identified in the Gospel of John with the second person of the Trinity incarnate in Jesus Christ.” This theological idea is demonstrated when Wallace incorporates the story about the two men, one religious and one an atheist, talking about the existence of God in the Alaskan wilderness. The two men’s conversation is about how the atheist was stranded in the mountains. When the atheist man says "Oh God, if there is a God, I’m lost in this blizzard and I’m gonna die if you don’t help me”(X1). The religious man looked puzzled and said, “Well then you must believe now, after all, here you are alive”(XI). In this instance, Wallace does not disclose his own religious beliefs, again, making the speech relatable to everyone, however Wallace incorporates religion to reason with the audience his story. Wallace’s story is a rhetorical example shown through logos about how such an important reality of the belief of God is still difficult to see, even if you have experienced a firsthand example yourself. Wallace's hopes of incorporating religion show that he is yet again trying to connect with someone who hasn't been able to grasp Wallace's speech thus far. 

Towards the conclusion of the speech, Wallace’s emotional appeal becomes much more apparent. Wallace incorporates the ideas of pathos, defined by Merriam-Webster's online dictionary as, “a quality that evokes pity or sadness”, as he gradually changes the tone of the speech into second person. Wallace discusses how important it is to “give yourself a choice” (XV) when seeing for example a “fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line” because no one is sure of what she has been dealing with. Simply put, Wallace is encouraging the audience to empathize with people who someone might typically judge based on the way they reacted to an inadequate situation.  

As influential and controversial as Wallace's speech has become, it has related to many people all over the world because of how important his message was. Oftentimes, people take for granted the companions and opportunities they are surrounded with. Through the use of ethos, logos, and pathos, Wallace was able to connect with not just his immediate audience, but millions of people everywhere because of the wide variety of ideas that logic, religion, and empathy were able to gave people to connect with. 

 