In the words attributed to Socrates in Plato's Apology, "The unexamined life is not worth living." David Foster Wallace expands on this idea in his “2005 Kenyon College Commencement Address,” emphasizing the importance of awareness and escape from the natural, default setting of an unconscious, self-centered life. While opening speeches are typically epideictic, celebratory in nature, Wallace takes a deliberative rhetorical stance. According to Fahnestock, deliberative discourse is used to persuade “into the best possible course of future action” (1998, p. 333). Abizadeh argues that character and emotion are “constitutive features of deliberation” and that deliberation cannot be “reduced to logical demonstration” (2002, p. 267). In his speech, Wallace uses a blend of Aristotle's persuasive appeals - logos, pathos, and ethos - to effectively persuade his audience. The most obvious appeal used by Wallace is Aristotle's logos. Logos is an appeal perceived by the audience as logical or rational. Connors (1979) argues that there is a difference between presenting logical arguments in writing and speech. According to Connors, in speech, each word is “shaped, sent, and forever abandoned” (p. 288) after it is spoken. The audience has no way of returning to hear part of the message again, and therefore the message must be understood upon delivery otherwise “the speech is a failure” (p. 288). In order for speakers to avoid this failure, Connors proposes that speakers must be repetitive of logical concepts. Wallace uses repetition to increase the effectiveness of his speech in a few ways. The words unconscious and conscious are repeated throughout the speech, as the message of the speech is reli...... middle of paper ......1) are what help Wallace establish his credibility since, obviously, the ability to connect knowledge to lived experience is a persuasive resource (Myers, 2003). Deliberative speech is used to persuade an audience into the best course of action and Wallace does this effectively with his “2005 Kenyon College Commencement Address.” The speech given by David Foster Wallace is widely discussed and analyzed. It's thought-provoking and leads to higher ontological questions like "Isn't questioning everything the essence of what it means to be alive?" (Roiland, 2009, p. 97). Wallace clearly states and reaffirms his thesis on the importance of awareness and self-reflexivity, or the choice to think consciously. Wallace's thesis is essentially the allure of logos, but it is his skillful interweaving of pathos and ethos that allows him to effectively persuade his audience..