Many misinterpret This is Water; it seems as if David Wallace is trying to give some kind of advice, however, he is using his text as a way to escape his own realities. The entire speech is dedicated to Wallace's outlook on life and how there is no alternate ways to experience adulthood. Using his point of view, diction, and the repetition of his speech, Wallace excels at delivering a disheartening and forceful message.  

David Wallace's view on life is completely skewed for the worse. It's unfair to predict every student's adult lives, especially at a commencement for College students. What does David Foster Wallace know about every individual in the graduating class?

Probably nothing at all, which is why nothing he says benefits the audience, especially by saying " Here's one example of the utter wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence." (Wallace XII) The purpose of the sentence is not meant to be relatable; rather Wallace is trying to reveal the inner workings of his mind and, in a way, vent to the crowd. Evidently, he generalizes the lives of many by preaching that adult existence is more of a chore than a rewarding experience, all because that's how he feels life is. Wallace does not base his argument off of any other individual's experience with the so-called "day-to-day trenches of adult existence," (Wallace XII) 

The word choice of a speech can greatly affect how the audience responds and internalizes what they have just heard. To effectively address a student and his or her future, one would think to use words such as: ambition, hard work, and endless possibilities. However, Wallace chooses words with a negative attachment. "Suicide  alone  soul-killing  death  boring  frustrating " (Wallace XII-XVII) Moreover, these are words he chooses to describe the trials of life, but in relation to his own. He doesn't consider the fact that there could be students in the crowd now petrified to enter this world or even parents who are now hesitant to let their children live alone. Only an evil person would want others to live in fear and I do not believe David Wallace is an evil man, he is just cursed with a flawed mindset and is in dire search of help. Wallace talks of his intelligence in parts of the speech, therefore, he knows that in no way could preaching the purpose of adulthood is to make it to 50 "without wanting to shoot yourself in the head." (Wallace XVII)

Throughout the text, David Wallace reiterates this broad notion that life is and always will be repetitive. In fact, he uses repetition to push the idea that life will be repetitive and that's its sole outcome. Wallace likes to actually focus on cliches and how they actually have deeper and darker truths. The purpose of this is to show how he thinks life is basically one big cliche; a sick joke that everyone has to go through. Again, this is an unfair point to make based of one's self. Life is not about going through the motions; it's about the memorable experiences that keep us hunting for more out of life. Furthermore, Wallace talks about the conscious and unconscious mind and how everyone has to learn how to think. (Wallace XIV) However, this is his way of saying he's stuck in his own mind of enclosing thoughts. No one learns how to think; rather it is self-taught through will and or through the actions of others. Wallace is saying he wished he had learned, but the sad truth is he had never taught himself how to reason well and needs a way of unconsciously taking that burden off him. It's painful to read over and over how one person can be so accustomed to a "default" life that he uses repetition as a way to not only further the depressing points in his speech, but also to describe the occurrences in his life. 

To convey a strong message, David Wallace uses literary devices such as diction, his point of view, and repetition. That message, hidden in all his claims not to follow his thought process, is that his own mind is flawed beyond repair and readers should strive to stay away from him. He didn't want to go onto the podium and give any cliche speech; rather he wanted to venture into the darkness of the mind few like to discuss. In no way was this a motivational speech, but it was a way for David Foster Wallace to share what was eating him inside and to show no one should let it over come him or her. With dark word choice, reverberation of the default mind setting, and his very own say on the world and everything wrong with adulthood, David Wallace creates a speech he wants students to pay close attention to and make their own impact as adults for he feels he is a lost cause in the world.

