

David Foster Wallace’s uses many repetitions throughout his speech This is Water. One of his repetitions is the word choose. Wallace gave this speech as a commencement address. This speech was all about living life as someone who sees the world differently than his or her default-setting. One of Wallace’s main points was about living to get to a point where we don’t want to kill ourselves. Unfortunately, he hung himself in 2008. This is a sad reminder that what he was saying to these graduates was likely something that he had struggled with himself. In it, he is hoping to inspire a new generation of thinkers He uses choose in a wide variety of ways to contribute to his thoughts on life and how to think. 

Wallace first introduces his thoughts on humans and the decision making attitude on page XII. He does this by saying “It’s a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting…” (XII). In this context, Wallace is saying that making the decision to think differently is difficult and that it’s so much easier to just continue with the so-called “default-setting”. He is using choose in this instance as a way of saying that no one is able to naturally interpret the world from outside their own personal bubble. Everyone must consciously decide to think outside of the default-setting if they want to truly live as a well-adjusted person. In order to do this, Wallace infers that we can’t make assumptions about people or their lives. It is important to not create someone else’s life within our own head, especially if we don’t know them. In this case, he is saying that despite the intelligence of the people he is talking to, they still have to make the decision to think differently. 

Wallace also talks about how we create meaning in our lives. He says “It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience” (XIII). What Wallace is saying here, is that whatever way we choose to look at the world, it is probably how we will remember things from our lives. Having a positive view of the world will leave us with positive memories and experiences. He is recommending that often our happiest memories will come from the times when we start to live as a well-adjusted person.

Wallace begins to look at the conscious side of choosing on page XIV. He says, “frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is going to come in” (XIV). Here, he is starting to talk about how either we choose to live our lives is going to be a choice. This is a very nice lead up to what Wallace is going to say about choosing to think in a positive way, or looking at life in a pessimistic way. In doing this, Wallace is trying to help the reader understand that they can make their own decision, and that Wallace is not saying his opinion is the only good option. By giving us the option to think about the sides of our decision, it makes so we don’t feel Wallace is preaching to us. Rather, he is encouraging us.  It is important that Wallace adds this neutral viewpoint before looking at both sides of thinking, as it provides a good jumping off point. He then goes into looking at both the positive and negative ways of thinking.

Wallace begins his argument by looking at the negative side of choose. He uses choose to say, “If I choose to think this way in a store and on the freeway, fine” (XIV). The next few lines are about how easy it is to operate with our default-setting and to act as the center of the world (XIV-XV). He talks about the mundane and petty parts of adult life that are often where we overlook other people and choose to live in our default ways. In this use of choose, Wallace is using it with a negative connotation. He does this to show that either way you live your life; it is a choice. You have the option of a self-centered or well-adjusted life. Wallace is saying that it is fine to live with your default-setting or self-centered ways, however he is encouraging us to make a decision to live a life that focuses on the world as a whole. He wants humans to not feel pressured about how to choose what they do, but he uses his commencement to show opinion. He is inferring that choosing to live as a well-adjusted person will often lead to a happier and more fulfilled life in the long run. After showing his view of the negative mind, Wallace flips the way that people can think.

Next, Wallace flips from a negative connotation of choose to a positive view. He says “Or I can choose to force myself to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket’s checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do”, (XV). He uses this as a contradiction to his negative thoughts. Wallace is saying that no matter what we think we are going through, someone has it much worse than we do. He wants us to think that maybe our lives aren’t so bad. By thinking this way, we are less judgmental, as well as we almost give ourselves an internal boost. When we take the time to make conscious decisions about how we think, we can see the world from a positive angle. While it may be easier to think the world revolves around oneself, in the long run, living as a well-adjusted person will make the world better off for everyone. Wallace uses these two differing sides to further his idea of living as a well-adjusted person. By deciding to live outside of yourself, you can see the world in a much different light. Although he doesn’t directly say it, Wallace likely thinks that the more adjusted we are the happier we will be in the long run. Also, when we are happier and adjusted it will make everyone else around us the same way, helping to make the world a little bit more unified and enjoyable for all. It is obvious that Wallace is hoping that we all live a life outside of our own personal bubble, and thus make the world better for everyone.

David Foster Wallace uses the word choose in a variety of different connotations and contexts throughout This is Water. Every use of the word builds on his message of learning to live outside of ourselves. Throughout, Wallace breathes more life into his thoughts on making the conscious decision to interpret the world in a new perspective, free from our natural self-centeredness and thoughtlessness. By the end of the speech, he has gotten the audience to think about how they can live outside of their natural default-setting and begin to be a well-adjusted member of society. 