Analysis Of This Is Water

This is Water, was a commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College in 2005. Ever since this speech has been given it has become well known. Because of the length, it can be hard to read through the speech while trying to understand the whole idea of it. Wallace fills the speech with stories, examples, and vivid ideas while trying to convince these college graduates how to view life in a positive perspective. While this speech is packed full of ideas he manages to give it in a way outside of the norm for commencement speeches. Yet still gets all the information to the graduates and anyone else who listens to it.

“This is Water” starts off with Mr. Wallace telling the Graduates the requirements of delivering a commencement speech, followed by a short story of two fish in the water. The story goes as follows, there are these two young an oblivious fish swimming in the water, they are soon met by an older and wiser fish and the older fish says “Morning, Boys. How’s the Water?’. The two young fish swim on and then one of them asks “What the hell is water?’ The question asked by the small fish is a story to illustrate to the Graduates to be fully aware of the world around you, to be fully conscious and woke of your

Through proving that we are not always correct, and reminding the audience that different people can have different views of reality, Wallace is able to use logical reasoning to show that humans have the ability to change their perspectives.

The author of “This is Water”, David Foster Wallace, uses the anecdote of the wise old fish and the younger fish to show us the importance of being aware of our surroundings. At the end of the speech when Wallace states “This is water” again it is trying to remind us that life is what you let it to be.

Water, although often taken for granted, is the lifeline of Earth. All carbon-based life requires some quantity of water to survive. However, in John Knowles’ A Separate Peace, water signifies much more than survival. The novel opens with Gene Forrester visiting The Devon School, his old boarding school. During the visit, Gene visits a marble staircase, as well as a tree, both of which cause him to recall memories of his old friend, Phineas. Gene tells his Devon memories, water becomes a key symbol in the story. Clean water, dirty water, snow, and bodies of water encapsulate Gene’s childhood recollections. Connections between water and Gene’s childhood began at the start of the novel, developing all the way through it, establishing water as

Water by the Spoonful, is a play that focuses on struggles of redemption. The main protagonist Elliot is damaged and is trying to deal with all his issues by not moving forward. The play shows Elliot trying to overcome his past, but it also shows that he’s having difficulties moving on.

In “This is Water” Wallace speaks from his own experiences in order to help others; he went through depression before finally hanging himself in 2008. One should not think of this as contradicting his points, though. This act shows that Wallace, too, was human, and capable of mistakes. Furthermore, he wanted people to have better lives than he did, and he believed they can do so by following his advice.

He uses logical appeals through his use of stories. He clarifies his message through his stories, and relates something that may be unfamiliar to something that is, like a simple story of fish, the two men, or an average adult day. As he talks about a person’s regular day, he is trying to relate to the audience. Wallace discusses, “By way of example let’s say it’s an average adult day, and you get up in the morning, go to your challenging, white-collar, college-graduate job, and you work hard for eight or ten hours and at the end of the day you’re tired and somewhat stressed and all you want is to go home and have a good supper...you remember there is no food at home...the traffic is apt to be: very bad… you have wander all over the huge, over-lit store's confusing aisles...the checkout line is incredibly long...you get told to “Have a nice day” in a voice that in the absolute voice of death… then you have to drive all the way home through slow, heavy, SUV-intensive, rush hour traffic, et cetera et cetera.” (Wallace 59). Wallace presents a real life scenario, which may become theirs. Wallace continues, “The thing is that, of course, there are totally different ways to think about these kinds of situations. IN this traffic, all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way...it is actually I who am in HIS way...But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently...If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable... The only thing that’s capital T-truth is that you get to decide how you’re gonna try to see it. This, I submit is the freedom is a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted” (Wallace 59-61). He is using a “big metaphor” to

Both of the works discuss how the world is experienced. In “This is Water” David Foster Wallace presents that you are at the center of every experience in your life. “Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe”, “Think about it: there is no experience you’ve had that you were not at the absolute center of.” (Wallace 10, 13). According to Wallace, in our daily lives, everything we do revolves around us. Every action that we do every single day has a direct impact on us. Wallace believes that it is human nature for people to assume that they are the most important person in their lives. Their own priorities are placed ahead of others, regardless of the situation. Other people may talk to us

The purpose of the speech, as delivered by David Foster Wallace, was to draw the graduates’ attention towards a higher level of processing interactions with others in everyday life. Wallace points out that it is ordinary to get caught up in the “ordinary” and he makes the comparison with a joke about a fish asking another fish what water is. The graduates are called to think beyond what is immediately seen such encounters with rude customers at a crowded grocery store and instead consider that they may have a perfectly reasonable excuse for acting the way that they did. Wallace’s main goal of delivering the speech is so that the graduates may interpret difficult scenarios of everyday life differently than they have ever before even though

The video to “This Is Water” had a different and unique approach to sending an extremely important message. Wallace’s speech talked about changing a person’s perspective and attitude on others around them. The way a person thinks can have the biggest difference in their life. As a child, Steve Jobs was put up for adoption, then later in his life, dropped out of college, and even got fired from a company he started himself. During these setbacks, he was able to take advantage of them by not giving up and not going to his ‘default natural setting’. These same setbacks helped him become successful in life and appreciate the value in things. David Foster Wallace has a great point when he says we all have options. We have control of our actions, as well as what we think. Wallace’s speech is relatable to everybody, and we all have the option to choose. What makes this great is that we all can control and have a say in our everyday lives. It only depends on if we choose to think and have an option.

“This is Water” is full of rhetorical strategies, some of which can be easily missed if one is not keenly looking for their presence. Wallace’s purpose has a dramatic impact on readers in his unique strategy choice. He chose to combine parallelism and repetition. He draws our attention to the downfalls of our

Water is essential for life as we know it on earth. It is used by plants

David Wallace's speech is organized to enable the listener, or reader, to see the reality of adulthood and then the power we have to choose whether or not we live a mindful, empathetic, truly conscious life. Wallace's tone throughout the speech is very friendly, and he uses casual language to make this audience feel comfortable. He uses metaphors about fish in water to illustrate the illusion of self. Another about Eskimos to show how arrogant people can be. He then goes into how secretly self-centered we all are, how we think we are the "center of the universe", because everything we experience is from our perspective like how "Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real"(Wallace, 2005). Moreover, Wallace goes into the power of worship, and the deadening effect of daily routine.

The main arguments the article Water talks about is about the way some people are so conceded in their own interest that they do not looking at the others people personal problems. They just look after themselves and want things to be easily done without difficulty but reality in another. People like businessman or doctors come with a lot of frustration that they see other and could careless what’s happening in their life. Topics like depression, frustrations, lack of sleep and too much work separates them from the world. Which causes loneliness in their life because of how stuck up they in their life. They want to change the world so that it can fit in their life but not change themselves. Its analysis is mainly about how busy people have