Changing a person's mindset can be difficult if they are not in the right mindset. If someone complains about their life and does nothing to change it, they must not care about their life or anyone else's. The main character in Maupassant's story, Mathilde Loisel, is one such person. She is a perfect example of what is wrong with society in the view of David Foster Wallace. Her life best represents what "This Is Water" describes as a regular and boring life that continues to worsen because she does nothing to change it. The readings "The Necklace" and "This Is Water" are interconnected in each of their own respective ways. Comparing two texts is very beneficial to gaining a better understanding of each text as it allows one to compare and contrast the meaning and mindset of two different authors or pieces.  Understanding "The Necklace", will allow for a more meaningful interpretation of "This Is Water". The lessons of gratitude and consequences in Guy de Maupassant "The Necklace" allow the reader to better interpret the lessons of awareness and self-improvement in David Foster Wallace's "This is Water".

Gratitude is a trait that many people should have in their lives for a variety of reasons, all of which are meant to make people's lives better. In "The Necklace" the author, Guy de Maupassant, writes about the main character Mathilde not being grateful for anything in her life. She represents those who think that life is unfair even though their lives are very good compared to many others. Her life is one of being carefree and not doing anything except to complain about things that she does not have which she believes will make her seem more important to the wealthy and influential. Those things are jewelry, nice clothes, an elegant home, and other material things. The main character, Mathilde says, in "The Necklace", "She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, wedded, by any rich and distinguished man" (Maupasssant 33). This quote shows the deep disdain she has for her current life and the reasons why it was terrible in her eyes. Her ideal life would be one in which her husband was an extremely wealthy person with great taste and many extravagant things. Mathilde was also mean to her husband who tried to make her life happy as best as he could, such as getting an invite to a nice ball.  While Mathilde prepared for the dance, she visited her friend to try on jewelry. She "could not make up her mind" and "kept asking if she had more"(Maupassant 35). This displayed how she could not simply be happy with good jewelry, she had to have the best and would not stop until she could acquire it. By showing more gratitude, she could have avoided many of the consequences that would ultimately plague her life.

The consequences in "The Necklace" were quick, fierce and occurred in the span of a few days during which the main character, Mathilde, was greatly affected. After the dance ended, Mathilde realized the necklace was gone. She and her husband frantically looked all over for it but to no avail. They looked for a necklace in the jewelry store that was similar to the one she lost. They borrowed a large sum of money and bought it for 33,000 francs. This plunged them into debt for ten years and they worked nonstop to be able to repay that debt. The author, Maupassant, wants to show what can happen to those who make bad decisions because these decisions can change a person's life in the blink of an eye. By showing how easily this can happen to a normal person just from a simple necklace, the author is showing how the smallest of problems can lead to much bigger troubles. The consequences she faced caused drastic changes to her lifestyle and made her realize the hardships that would follow from this situation. After Mathilde and her husband bought a new necklace, she realized she needed to change hers life in order to pay off this large debt. The author writes that, "They dismissed their servant; they changed their lodgings; they rented a garret under the roof," which were some of the many changes they forced upon themselves (Maupassant 38). She became, "The woman of impoverished households," and that meant she became the opposite of the women she desired to be. All these mishaps were consequences from her previous behavior. The most significant thing that happened was when Mathilde saw her friend and revealed to her what really happened to the necklace. Her friend said that her necklace was "paste" and "worth at most five hundred francs" (Maupassant 39). It is ironic that she spent a lot of money for a necklace that was worth merely nothing, and all the pain she suffered was because of her pride. "The Necklace" and its message of gratitude and consequences are important to the understanding of "This is Water".

The lessons in "The Necklace" help to interpret the awareness in "This Is Water", because David Foster Wallace wants people to be more aware of the way they act in order to help further them in life. Mathilde was not aware of how bad a person she was and therefore did not realize that the way she was acting would eventually ruin her life. Her husband never once scolded her for wanting too much causing her to think that her behavior was acceptable. Mathilde fits the description as the person in "This Is Water", that David describes as being negative all the time. Examples such as, "my natural default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me" and "everybody else is just in my way"(Wallace XIV, XV). What Wallace was saying is that most people only care for themselves and are selfish no matter what, and these thoughts are "hardwired into our boards at birth"(Wallace XIII). If people could take a moment to think about their everyday lives to understand what is going on and be grateful for it, then it would help them expand themselves. If Mathilde was more grateful she would have been able to understand that everything in life does not need to be hers and she does not need to be the center of attention. If she was aware that she was ungrateful she could have taken many steps to fix her problem, which was that she would, "worship money and things" and due to that she had an empty feeling of "never having enough"(Wallace XVI). Wallace wants the audience to stray away from those paths and to have more freedom instead of being confined to that one belief. Mathilde's obsession with that one belief brought the many consequences she later faced. Wallace spoke about how by not being aware of who we are we face many consequences such as despising our lives and doing the same thing over and over. He says, "It is about making it to 30, or maybe 50, without wanting to shoot yourself in the head"(Wallace XVII). He also says, "you have to get up the next day and do it all again"(Wallace XIV). Mathilde had to do a lot of hard work to pay back the debt and did it for ten years, which completely changed her life. She disliked this new life and hated having to be like a commoner but there was nothing else she could do. By comparing these lessons to awareness, self-improvement can also be understood.

Self-improvement in "This is Water" can also be interpreted by understanding gratitude and consequences. Wallace would like everyone to improve themselves in order to help save them from their own destruction. Wallace says, "The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them" (Wallace XVII). In "The Necklace" Mathilde eventually does come around to accept this type of thinking by doing many cost saving actions to help pay the debt. She learned what hard work meant and began to pull her own weight in her relationship. Discipline and effort were the keys to this entire goal happening as her life was constantly in danger of falling apart. Her life changed because she stopped worrying about being elegant.  She finally came to realize how the life they once lived was actually a very good one soon after became grateful for it. That is what Wallace wants in people so that if their life is going downhill they will have the determination to fix it. Overall, these lessons helped to show how self-improvement was a significant theme in "This Is Water".

In conclusion, by understanding gratitude and consequences in "The Necklace" it allows for a better understanding of awareness and self-improvement in "This Is Water". Mathilde showed that by not being grateful consequences will arise from it, and these consequences can change a person's life drastically, for the worse. This in turn helps to interpret the lessons in "This Is Water" about awareness and self-improvement because Mathilde represents what Wallace believes is wrong with society. She never understands the extent of her problems and that in turn hurts her. Although she is later able to improve herself from the experience, it is far too late and it should have begun before she lost the necklace. Wallace in turn would like people to become aware of themselves and constantly improve, as this will help their lives in the years to come instead of waiting until it is too late and harming themselves like Mathilde.  Overall, reading "The Necklace" allowed for better understanding and interpretation of "This Is Water.

