"This Is Water" is a commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College. The general message he gave to the graduates was to "get out of their own minds and think outside the box" (Wallace, pg. 12). Wallace uses the term, "default setting" (Wallace, pg. 12), to represent the natural, automatic, self centered way that our brain portrays the world around us. I believe the most compelling part of the speech is the grocery store scene. The imagery and sentence structure Wallace uses in this section of his speech help the reader relate to the actual meaning that he, the author, was trying to get across, which is to think outside of your default setting.

In "This Is Water", Wallace uses imagery profusely throughout the grocery store example. When he describes the average day of waking up, going to work, coming home, and then doing it all over again the next day he puts a montage of different scenes in my mind. In the grocery store, Wallace describes the "big bulky carts" that never seem to go the direction you are trying to push them in (Wallace, pg. 14). He also describes the old, confused, or slow people you would encounter in the store. Wallace uses these descriptions because every reader can relate to it. Everyone has, at one time, been in a grocery store during rush hour and experienced all of the recently mentioned situations like the harsh lights, crowded aisles, ponderous carts, and other pestering customers. We have all been there and know how unpleasant it is. The importance of  Wallace's use of imagery is to make us feel, see, and hear the annoying and frustrating encounters the main character is dealing with while trying to get in and out of the grocery store. He uses these examples to help us to relate to the narrator who was thinking in his default setting.

Another way Wallace helps the reader relate to the meaning is through sentence structure. Throughout the grocery store example, Wallace uses a number of lengthy, tedious clauses. He does this to make the reader physically feel how long, tiring, stressful, and unnecessarily dragged out the main characters grocery store experience is that day. An example of Wallace's use of long clauses and negative diction used to describe things and people is on page 15 when the main character is stuck in traffic. As he jolts to quick stops and gets cut off while attempting to switch lines, he describes the other cars using words like "huge, stupid, lane blocking, wasteful, selfish forty gallon tanks of gas Hummers and SUV's (Wallace, pg. 15)". He describes the people driving these vehicles with words like, "disgusting, hideous, selfish, ugly, inconsiderate, and aggressive" (Wallace, pg. 15). Thinking through his default setting, the character thinks that the other bustling cars are in his way but in reality, he is also in their way. He also uses negative connotation to describe everything in the store. A few examples are, "the junky cart," "hideously, flourecently lit aisles," "tired, hurried people", "creepy, flimsy plastic bag", and "crowded, bumpy, littery parking lot" (Wallace, pg. 14). Everyone in traffic and in the store have their own lives and problems that they are dealing with, just like they narrator. In reality, the main character   might be annoying or in the way of the other unnamed people in the story. The importance of Wallace's use of clauses and diction is to help the reader physically feel this scene so that we understand the meaning of the speech itself. These quotes are important because the author used so many descriptive words that help the reader see in their mind what the author is trying to picture. The words he chose to use were common enough that all readers will be able to relate to the scenario.

Through the imagery and sentence structure Wallace uses throughout the grocery store example, the reader is able to relate to the mindset of the main character, who is thinking through his default setting. He believes everything and everyone in the store and on the highway are an inconvenience and an annoyance to him. If the main character were to think outside of his default setting, he would realize that maybe he was in their way. Maybe the old person walking slowly in front of his cart had dementia and didn't even remember why they were in the store. An example Wallace gives is the woman yelling at her children in the checkout lane. Maybe her husband is dying of a terminal illness and she was up all night taking care of him and now she doesn't have the patience to control her children in the store (Wallace, pg. 16). These literary devices affect the work as a whole because they are used to make us mentally and physically feel the tediousness and annoyance of the main character and show us what life is like for someone who thinks using their default setting.

Wallace used imagery and sentence structure to help the reader relate to the actual meaning of thinking outside of our default setting so we can learn to live a more selfless, compassionate and happier life. If you are looking out into the world with a selfish point of view, you will always see what other people are doing wrong and how it is negatively affecting your life. By thinking outside of your default setting and caring and sacrificing for others, you will begin to notice more of the good things in life. When you realize that other people may be going through the same thing or even worse than you, you will feel compassion and be a happier person because you know that you're not alone and will stop feeling sorry for yourself because you don't have it so bad.

