David Foster Wallace\'s \" this is water\" English 1 PDF

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Essay on David Foster Wallace's " this is water". Includes examples/ reasoning....

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Srabony Barua Professor Kirsten Moreno English 1 18 December 2020 Is it All About Me or All About You? David Foster Wallace’s graduation speech “This Is Water” to the graduating class of 2005 was meaningful. He delivered this speech at Kenyon College on May 21, 2005, where he uses logical and emotional appeals to discuss the importance of critical thinking. In his speech, Wallace uses the word “conscious” to show critical thinkers, while the individuals who don't think critically are referred to as “unconscious”. Wallace’s main argument is choosing or choice, meaning a person has the choice to think critically and should do so every day. His speech talked about changing a person’s perspective and attitude on others around them. Through anecdotes and dry humor, Wallace gave the graduating seniors a practical glance at life after school, alongside how it will drain them physically and emotionally. His speech helps deliver the reality of how a typical adult life goes. He gave the students the tools to combat this line of thinking and make life less stressful. This perspective has changed how I think when I am around individuals and it has got me to avoid the path of frustration and confrontations. It helped me realize that focusing on others is imperatively significant. His speech also talked about decision making, and how all choices will affect you, whether positively or negatively. The powerful meaning behind his message, his delivery of them, and his all-around unique approach are more valuable to college graduates than any other. All the things he addressed could be bundled together with several common motifs: follow your dreams, you can achieve anything, and do whatever is most

Barua 2 pleasurable. The speech “This Is Water” had a unique approach to sending an extremely important message. Wallace started his speech with an anecdote of younger fish asking an elder fish about the water. However, the older fish could not envision what the question meant or what the younger fish were talking about. Wallace then elaborated by saying, “The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about” (Wallace, par. 2). This statement leads to the main point of his speech the fact that a change in thinking can save citizens from the daily grind of their nine-to-five job. “Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I automatically am sure of,” Wallace follows up, “-everything... supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe” (Wallace, par. 7). He later touches on the fact that it is this exact belief, accepting that each circumstance is about you and that every other human or object around you is only an impediment to achieving your specific task at the moment is the basis of the anger and unhappiness most people experience. For instance, talking from my personal experience, a few weeks ago my mom came home from an extremely stressful day at work. On top of that, the engine of her car started showing signs of trouble again despite getting it fixed last month. I had no idea that she went through such a stressful day, I went to my mom’s room like usual to spend some time with her. I asked her a simple question, “Who is taking me to work tomorrow”. And because of the anger built up from the day she started yelling at me and told me not to go to work. The next day my mom told me she was just angry and frustrated because of how bad her day went yesterday and she took it off on me. Being stressed from work can frequently lead us to believe that we are the center of attention. Wallace refers to this as a human’s “natural default setting” (Wallace, par. 8). By having the “choice of what to think about,” we can switch gears

Barua 3 and change our mood (Wallace, par. 3). Others around us are just as important as we are. To emphasize his central idea, Wallace creates a speculative situation, all around very genuine to the parents in the audience, of a person who had to make a late-night trip to a crowded supermarket after a tiring day of work to restock his home refrigerator. And not only is this person upset because of all the other shoppers, who in his mind are preventing him from accomplishing this but because their work and exhaustion are a daily routine, one that will start again in a few hours. This is where the harsh humor kicks in, and it not only refreshes and pleases the audience but still helps to prove his point through this story due to the simple fact that many people think this way. “The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what ‘day in day out’ really means,” Wallace assures his student audience, still reciting his supermarket tale (Wallace, par. 12). Immediately following this speculative situation, however, Wallace guarantees that this is actually how not to think. He at that point puts a spin on his previous tale to get the minds of his audience working. He recommends that maybe the drivers of the huge sport utility vehicles responsible for the traffic jam have been in horrific accidents and that the bigger vehicle gives them security and peace of mind. Perhaps the individual driving the Hummer that just cut you off has a child in the vehicle that they are attempting to rush to the emergency room as fast as possible. Or even, the lady in the checkout line shouting at her child is exhausted after spending several sleepless nights by the side of her dying husband. “Of course, none of this is likely,” Wallace asserts, “but it’s also not impossible” (Wallace, par. 23). Wallace then makes sure to restate the importance of this change of thinking. “If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is . . . then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable” (Wallace, par. 23). Wallace then closes by stating that this change in thinking is all about awareness, only acknowledging what you want to. He concludes by reminding the

Barua 4 students to keep in mind, “This is water, this is water” (Wallace, par. 33). When I read “This Is Water” by David Foster Wallace, it opened my eyes. I perceived how the speech was relatable to me, and how this was my equivalent viewpoint throughout everyday life. I agreed with many of Wallace’s points, and although his primary tool was a speculative epic, it is still clear what messages he is attempting to pass on and he does so clearly. He set up right off the bat what he needed to state, and what he needed those seniors to walk away with. I like the point he made about how a person can bring change to not only themselves but the surrounding community by simply choosing what to think. For instance, a current event that supports his point is the deadly pandemic we are in. People are frustrated and tired of following the same routine of wearing masks every day. Although wearing masks can be troublesome, people should still have empathy and compassion towards other people. Some people decide to travel to places without wearing masks because it frustrates them. What they do not think is that doctors, nurses, and several others are going through the same thing, if not they go through much harder days. Regardless of the situation, people should be able to see life and everything around them from different angles. They can stop being anxious about a situation by showing compassion. I also enjoyed when Wallace told them they had yet to understand what “day in day out” (Wallace, par. 12) really meant because unfortunately, this is correct. The workplace is far harder and more complex than a college class, and Wallace does a superb job of providing the students with a minute sample of what that life entails. His speech was articulated well and very thought out, yet not too formal. He didn’t use too many complex words that might go over the heads of some graduates (although they are, in fact, graduating college and should possess a rather advanced vocabulary). The speech, and the diction used in it, were truly relatable, which is the reason he evoked an emotional response from the crowd, and me. The

Barua 5 utilization of certain adjectives such as, “cow-like, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady,” (Wallace, par. 16) was quite pointless to be used in a school environment. However, it is understood that everything that came out of his mouth served a purpose. While not polite or encouraged by any means, the use of these rude adjectives is simply to show the thoughts that rapidly rush through the head of the average person. David Foster Wallace’s commencement address to Kenyon College in 2005 was a stellar one because of the information and message it entailed, and its diversion from the commencement speech status quo. Instead of providing the students with the cliché, “Follow your heart,” or “You will all accomplish great things” anyone can provide that, he hit the seniors with a dose of reality. He did this not to startle, but to educate, and provide the keys to controlling your thoughts and awareness. This awareness is essential to keeping your sanity, how not to give in to the daily grind, and to appreciate life a bit more. Just you can choose what you recognize and how it will influence you throughout your life. This is the way I am going to live my life thinking because I realized that the way a person thinks can have the biggest difference in their life. Therefore, Wallace was asked to give the speech in the first place, to provide something memorable, practical, and applicable. That is exactly what his commencement speech does, and it does an excellent job in opening individuals’ eyes and showing them the harsh reality. That is the capital-T truth.

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Works Cited “This Is Water by David Foster Wallace (Full Transcript and Audio).” Farnam Street , 3 Dec. 2020, fs.blog/2012/04/David-foster-Wallace-this-is-water/....