Michael Xu

Tues Thur 2:00- 3:50

David Foster Wallace Rhetorical Analysis Essay
The Key to Happiness: Self Reflection and Awareness
David Foster Wallace starts off the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address by
telling a short story of two little fish. The two little fish meet an older fish that says
Morning, boys. Hows the water? (Wallace). The two little fish keep moving and
eventually one asks the other What the hell is water? (Wallace). He then goes and
tells the audience that he is not the wise older fish and that the story is merely that the
most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk
about (Wallace). He follows up the story with another story. This time it is about two
men who are discussing religion in a bar. One of the men is religious and the other is an
atheist. The two were arguing over the existence of God. The atheist then says that he
was once lost in a horrible blizzard, which caused him to pray to God to help get him
out. The religious guy becomes confused to why he does not believe in God now. The
atheist says it was not Gods doing, but some Eskimos who showed him back. He tells
this story to show how important perspective is. The same event had polar opposite
interpretations for the two men.
Its easy to run this story through kind of a standard liberal arts analysis: the
exact same experience can mean two total different things to two different
people, given those peoples two different belief templates and two different
ways of constructing meaning from experience (Wallace).

After the story, Wallace goes on to talk about the graduates life after college. He makes
the graduates life seem tedious: annoying.
...lets say its an average adult day, and you get up in the morning, go to your
eight or ten hours, and at the end of the day all you want is to go home and have
a good supper and maybe unwind for an hour, and then hit the sack early
because, of course you have to get up the next day and do it all again (Wallace).
Its easy for us to get frustrated when nothing seems to be going our way; everyday
frustrations include traffic jams and long checkout lines. That is because our natural
default setting makes us only think About MY hungriness and My fatigue and My
desire to just get home, and its going to seem for all the world like everybody else is
just in my way (Wallace). The natural default setting is when we think about our own
needs and do not take other peoples needs into consideration. It is natural for us to do
this, because we are the center of the universe and everything is about us. No matter
how much we do not want to believe that we are the most self-center people, we are.
Thats because everything we go to and experience comes from our perspective,
because we literally are in center of the universe. Everything we see is behind ME, in
front of ME, to the left or right of ME (Wallace). However it is possible to change this
habit by trying to think why someone is doing something.
...the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little
child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and hes trying to get this kid to the
hospital, and hes in a bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am: it is actually I who
am in HIS way (Wallace).
Although it is hard to change your natural default setting we all have the choice to.

Right before he wishes the graduates luck on their journey in the real world he says
This is water. This is water (Wallace).
The text is a commencement speech, which means the speech is supposed to
motivate, excite, and prepare the graduates for the real world. This speech follows the
traditional commencement speech to a certain extent, but has some major differences.
Instead of motivating and exciting the students, Wallace hits them with the... capital-T
Truth of how frustrating and boring the real word can be. However, he does teach the
graduates how to turn around a crappy situation by simply being more aware. It is
about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge,
and everything to do with simple awareness (Wallace). Just like all the other
graduation speeches I have heard in the past this one also has a life lesson in it. The
life lesson of why it is important to choose to think. ...if I dont make a conscious
decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, Im gonna get pissed and
miserable every time I have to shop (Wallace). Recurring themes are overcoming
egocentrism and self-awareness. These theme runs throughout the speech. At one
point he talks about the misery of driving home, because of all the SUVs and
Hummers and V-12 pickup trucks, burning their wasteful, selfish, forty-gallon tanks of
gas just to say this is an example of how NOT to think, though (Wallace). Basically, do
not just think about how the SUVs, Hummers, and V-12 pickup trucks affect you. The
theme, self-awareness, comes into play because Wallace talks about how learning how
to think is actually learning how to control what you think.

David Foster Wallace seems to recognize other peoples perspective well.

Throughout the essay he points out what the person on the other side of the encounter
might be going through to justify what they are doing.
In this traffic, all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way, its not impossible
that some of these people in SUVs have been in horrible auto accidents in the
past, and now find driving so terrifying that their therapist has all but ordered
them to get a huge, heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive (Wallace).
He also recognizes that ...these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful
lives than I do (Wallace). Not only is he not egocentric, but he is also self-aware. He
recognizes how hard it is to change ones default setting. He tells the audience what it
takes to get out of the default mind set. It takes will and effort, and if you are like me,
some days you wont be able to do it, or you just flat out wont want to (Wallace). By
saying this he shows us that he does not think he is above us by any means, but that
we are on the same level. By doing this he tells us a lot about his character. One of the
many would be that he is not arrogant, but very realistic.
This speech was my favorite text that we read in class so far. Thats because I
am now more aware about my surrounding and will take other peoples perspective in
mind. In the beginning of Wallaces speech, he told a short story where two young
fishes do not know what water is. In the middle of the speech he speaks about
awareness for others and ends with This is water. This is water. The fishes represent
the audience, unaware of other peoples perspective in their surrounding. He ends with
This is water. This is water, because now the fishes or audience, are aware. Just like
how the fishes are aware of what water is at the end of the speech. I agree with most of

Wallaces points throughout his entire speech. One of the many talks about how we are
naturally egocentric. It is our default setting, hardwired into our board at birth. Think
about it there is no event that YOU were not in the absolute center of (Wallace). He
keeps going how everything has to be communicated to you, but our own thoughts are
instant. We do not talk about this much from my experience, but it is something we
should be reminded more often. By being reminded, it may lead people to remember
that there is always another side to a story and that maybe we are not the most
important person on the face of the plant. Another point I would like to address is
Wallaces claim that people who committed suicide are actually dead long before they
pull the trigger (Wallace). He states this, because it is a harsh reality. The reason why
he thinks those people who commit suicide are long dead before they kill themselves is
because people who commit suicide do not think about others. In fact they stop thinking
altogether and in order to be alive one must be able to think. Learning how to think
really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think
(Wallace). This means that if you were able to think, you would have some control and
be able to change your thought of suicide. The harsh irony is that Wallace ends up
killing himself three years later after he gave this speech. After he said that. it set the
tone: straight-forward and honest, for the rest of the speech. The only question it
proposes up is how do you remember such an important concept when you need it the
most? Usually when we are mad or frustrated all we do think about is ourselves. This
speech tells us to be more aware so that we do not get mad, annoyed, frustrated, et
cetera. To restate the question how do we apply this to when we are already irritated,
angry, et cetera?

Overall, the speech falls into the genre commencement speech and the major
theme is awareness. Awareness of how we think, Awareness of how other people think,
and Awareness that This is water. The author, Wallace, says many different situations
for how we can be aware. It ranges from being in the grocery store to being cut off on
the road. He even tells an anti-example, where he insults everyone in his way. This
way he comes from many different angles to try and stress the importance of
awareness. He even states It is about the real value of a real education, which has
almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness..
(Wallace). Just simple awareness can have the same value as a real education.
From just the fact that he is giving the speech shows that he cares about people, and
from the speech we know what he cares most, people being well adjusted, since he
restates it so many times. I believe that if we are all more aware it would make this
world a better place. It will not be easy, but it is possible. If Wallace gave a speech
about doing something that is not possible, then it would not be consider such an
influential speech.
Even though I feel like this speech was very moving, some people would
disagree with me. Wallace gives the audience a way out by saying
Again, please dont think that Im giving you moral advice, or that Im saying that
you are supposed to think this was, or that anyone expects you to just
automatically do it. Because its hard. It takes will and effort, and if you are like
me, some days you wont be able to do it, or you just flat out wont do it
(Wallace).

Even the author of the speech sometimes will not even think the way he suggested, so
why would we try? On top of that he said that you are not morally wrong is you do not
think of others. This concept can also be applied to almost anything. An example would
be that donating money. If you did not donate money then someone can say. Well are
you not aware that you have it better than most people. so the least you can do it
donate some money. Since this concept can be applied to the extreme many people
just give up and just wonder why even try in the first place. However, any effort is better
than no effort. The last reason why people would try to be more aware is because they
feel like they do not get anything in return. Even though we do not get any physically
reward of being aware, we will be mentally well adjusted.
The speech has made a big impact on my life. I have listened to this speech too
many times to count this week and last week. I actually like this speech so much that
made a second copy of it. This speech and the TED talk we listened to in class really
complements each other, since they are both about different ways to think. The TED talk
is directly about happiness, but the commencement speech is more geared towards
awareness. Even though it is main focus is awareness of others it does lead to
happiness. Rather than getting pissed because there is a long line, we can be
understanding that everyone around us is in the same situation as us. This can help
prevent us from getting all get frustrated when theres that same long line again,
because we can choose to think about something other than our needs. Honestly, I feel
like a happier person after reading and listening to the speech. I am happier because I
have changed some of my bad habits. One of them use to be when a car tried to pass
me for some unknown reason I would speed up and not let them pass me. Now I do not

get irritated like I use to and I realized that they might actually need to go somewhere.
Just like how Wallace said that he was in the way of the hypothetical truck that cut him
off, I was in the way of that car that passed me.
The things I took to heart and made me a better person are the ones easy to
remember and apply. The first one is...Learning how to think really means learning how
to exercise some control over how and what you think (Wallace). This quote introduces
later comments Wallace makes in his speech. This gave me an understanding that we
actually choose how we think and behave. Like when we are sad a lot of the times it is
because we want to be sad. This helps me, because now I will remember that some
people do not want to be cheered up. The quote above is also an introduction to the
concept of being able to change how we feel by changing how we think. ...If I dont
make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, Im going to
be pissed...(Wallace). This is important, because no one wants to be constantly mad or
irritated. That is why there are so many sources like podcasts and TED talks that help
and try to tell people the key to happiness. The last quote is This is water. This seems
like a random quote that I remember. The reason for why I like this quote is because I
enjoy the analogy Wallace made with the fish as us and the water as our awareness. I
also feel proud that I understood what it meant. The first three times I read the speech, I
did not have a clue of what he was referring to, since it just seemed so random and out
of place. Maybe results we get are not always so random and out of place, maybe there
is a deeper meaning to everything just like the quote.

Work Cited
Wallace, David. This is Water Kenyon College, Gambier, OH . IN. 21 May 2005.
Kenyon Commencement Address.
Wallace, David. This Is Water - Full version-David Foster Wallace Commencement
Speech Online video chip. Youtube. 19 May 2013. Web. 10 May 2016.
Wallace, David/Smith, Jermal. This Is Water - David Foster Wallace Online video chip.
Youtube. 20 Nov 2014. Web. 10 May 2016.
Weber, Bruce. "David Foster Wallace, Influential Writer, Dies at 46." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 14 Sept. 2008. Web. 16 May 2016.