This Is Water by David Foster Wallace

Hailey Liscio

Mr. Sherlock

HZT 4U1-01

April 10, 2017

“This is Water” by David Foster Wallace

This is Water was a speech written and delivered by David Foster Wallace. In this famous speech, he talks to a group of graduates about the real world and some experience they will encounter. Wallace tries to out their eyes to make a difference in their everyday society.

        David Foster Wallace was an American short story writer as well as a professor of English and creative writing. Wallace delivered a speech address to the 2005 graduating class at Kenyon College. The speech then was later published in a book, “This is Water” and portions of the speech were used in a popular video online, also titled “This is Water”.

        The main idea of this piece is to encourage people, especially the youth to be aware of the world and the people around them. This addresses the “default setting” of people who tend to unknowingly take very self-centered approach as to how they view themselves and their surroundings. Wallace also discusses the importance of critical thinking. He uses two term “conscious” and “unconscious”; conscious would be used for the people who are critical thinkers, while those who do not think critically are referred to as unconscious. People have the choice to think critically and should do so every day.

        One of Wallace’s arguments is not to live life in the default setting. He states, “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”. What Wallace is trying to say that we as humans have been raised from birth to have our needs met and we naturally get angered if things are done otherwise. This article is trying to emphasize awareness and how the simplest solutions are right in front of us. Wallace claims that our brain is hardwired to completely ignore all possibilities of why someone might do something we dislike. This speech is trying to persuade the reader to become aware of other’s needs as we hope others would do to us. However, we cannot be completely aware of our surroundings, so there is a spark of happiness in assuming the best in people instead of the worst. We never realize how easy our lives are compared to some others, and in this world, we must learn to live with each other in our own pursuits to happiness. The default setting is how we are created as human beings. It is a part of the essential element of being what we are. Of course, thinking that the world revolves around you or how you put yourself in front of others at time will represent you as an selfish person. However, there is no such thing as not being selfish, once you enter this world, everything is about you to yourself. Everyone is born into an selfish environment, but some people learn how to adapt and avoid being selfish.

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