Bryan Haines

Professor Padgett
ENGL 101
8 September 2015
Analysis of This is Water
Every individual at some point is faced with the challenge of
living with a reality that might not quite live up to expectations.
Society places great pressure on one to live a normal life after they
leave home and embark on their own journey. Life after adolescence
can be especially challenging for many people because the average
person does not like to think outside of their natural mindset. David
Foster Wallaces commencement This is Water addresses the topic of
surviving in modern, adult reality and not living dead, unconscious,
a slave to [ones] own head Commencement addresses are
commonly used to bestow advice upon students entering a new
chapter in their lives and Wallace does just this by sharing relatable
experiences adults face every day. David Foster Wallace uses This is
Water to try to teach young members of society how thinking
objectively about life can help them better understand the world
around them.
Adolescence can be a stress-free time for many and this type of
living can force individuals to set unreasonably high expectations for
the rest of their lives. People like to think that their lives are going to

be perfect and that the world will fall into place just for them.
Unfortunately though, life after adolescence isnt all happiness and
rainbows. According to Wallace, with adult life comes boredom, routine
and petty frustration. Jobs, errands, families and other variables can
cause even the most relaxed individuals to feel like the universe that
once fell into place for them is now out to get them. These things can
have devastating effects on people if they refuse to think outside of
what they know and what they chose to believe is true about the
world. When Wallace describes a persons default setting, he is
referring to the brains self-centeredness. Every human being is
engrained with the notion that the world exists for them and that every
experience is geared with them in mind. This type of thinking is
instinctual and is a habit that is extremely hard to break. Wallace uses
the example of going to the crowded grocery store after a long, hard
day of work at a tedious, modern job. The average person works hard
for hours on end everyday and the last place they want to be at the
end of that tiring day is in a fluorescently lit acropolis, filled to the brim
with other aggravated people trying to perform the same simple task
as them. The lines are long, the music is annoying and the individuals
brain is motoring along in its default setting, resenting everyone and
everything around it because the situation seems quite inconvenient in
the moment.

Wallace would then urge that individual to mentally take a step

back and think differently about their petty frustration. Wallace would
encourage this person standing in line at the supermarket to forget
they are the center of existence for a moment and take in whats going
on around them. By switching his or her brains natural setting the
individual might now be able to understand that every other person in
the supermarket has a story of their own and isnt just there to stand in
their way. By thinking objectively an individual can begin to enjoy any
situation, even standing in line at the busy grocery store. Instead of
waiting in line angry and annoyed, one can try to understand the
frustration felt by every other person waiting in line with him or her.
Instead of being rude to the cashier who is having a hard time keeping
up with the busy rush of customers, one can think about the cashier as
a possible mother who is working hard and in reality has it off much
worse than the individual observing her. Wallace claims that being able
to think in this way is the most valuable part of a liberal arts degree.
Wallace also uses the example of busy traffic to describe an
everyday, adult situation that can cause extreme aggravation if one
does not approach it with the correct mindset. Most people see this
situation as a worst-case scenario and tend to look negatively upon
every variable surrounding them. However, by utilizing Wallaces
advice on how to truly use a liberal arts degree, one could find that it is
not they who are the epicenter of life and then recognize that the most

absurd occurrences cannot be controlled nor prevented. When an

individual takes their own essence out of any situation they can truly
start to think about what is presented in front of them instead of
relying on their default settings to determine how they feel about the
specific ordeal.
David Foster Wallace used This is Water to help prepare the 2005
graduating class of Kenyon College on how to survive the repetition
and mediocrity of adult life. Life after adolescence can prove to be
difficult for some because they cannot adjust to the petty frustrations
set before all average people living in twenty-first century society.
Wallace urges the class of 2005 to use their liberal arts degrees for
more than just monetary success. He encourages the graduates to use
their educations to assist them in new ways of thinking that combat
the challenges of mendacity in every day life. This is Water is meant to
push individuals away from their natural ways of thinking and promote
the idea of looking at life objectively in order to understand and
appreciate it to a fuller extent than ever before.

Peer Comments:
1. Yes, the thesis was saying that the students should use there
new liberal arts degree to think in a different outside the box
manner to better understand how people live.
2. No the paper offers a great amount of close reading with
examples but you should think about adding atleast one quote to

each paragraph and using that quote as a bassis of information

and your close reading
3. Make sure when you are using quotes that you use the citations
after the quote.
4. Generally you did a great job at doing a close reading and giving
your own outlook upon what Wallace was trying to say. The only
thing you really need to add to the paper is the use of quotes to
make it better.
5. The thesis is that a liberal arts degree should be used to think
objectively to better understand the world and enjoy life.
6. I think there is a little summarizing, especially in the last
paragraph, but overall I think the point was argued effectively
with the use of quotes.
7. The paper uses quotes but there is no citation.
8. I think you used Wallace would say or something similar a little
too much. Overall I think you supported the thesis effectively and
showed how to get around your default setting.