This is Water

Speakers can gain listeners’ trust by avoiding an authoritative tone in favor of conveying humility. Self-effacement, when employed effectively, breaks down barriers between speaker and audience. Wallace consistently reminds the Kenyon graduates that he is merely offering his views and not attempting to instruct or pontificate. He reveals this intention immediately, saying, “I am not the wise old fish” (1). He draws a conceptual circle around the expectations of commencement speakers when noting that such speeches are “a standard requirement of US commencement speeches, the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories” (1). Wallace avoids self-congratulatory anecdotes by injecting himself into the same situations the audience may experience in life. He admits to making mistakes and learning things the hard way. He stresses, “Please don’t worry that I’m getting ready to lecture you about compassion or other-directedness or all the so-called virtues” (3). This reassurance relays his awareness of the preconceived notions surrounding his address. Wallace levels with the graduates, offering them personal and concrete evidence as to how he came to the conclusions he espouses. Then, he finishes the speech in a self-deprecating manner, saying, “I know that this stuff probably doesn’t sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech is supposed to sound” (9).