David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” uses patterns, language, tone and other elements of the text to discuss his meaning and purpose of the piece. One of these patterns is repetition, which he uses to emphasize concepts and ideas. For example, he repeats the concept of traffic and speaks about water multiple times. Through this repetition, one can infer that the overarching theme of David Foster Wallace’s speech is the importance and struggle of mindfulness in the modern era.

Wallace is not trying to lecture his listeners into being better people; he is merely trying to tell them to open up their eyes to the world. In his speech, Wallace states, “The point here is that I think this is one part of what teaching me how to think is really supposed to mean. To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded” (David Foster Wallace, XII). In this quote, it is apparent that Wallace wants humans to see that there is so much more to life than their self-absorbed lives. Each individual human has little importance when looking at the big picture. 

Wallace uses the metaphor of water repeatedly throughout his speech. When he says, “this is water” he is not actually talking about real water. He is talking about the idea that we could be living our daily lives and not even realizing anything going on around us. In order to explain this concept, Wallace uses an example of fish. Wallace explains, “an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says ‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?’ And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes ‘What the hell is water?’”(Wallace, X). The fish does not even know what water is. Fish need water to survive; however, fish have no idea what water actually is, similar to the fact that humans are oblivious to their surroundings. Asking a fish “How’s the water?” is like asking another individual “How is life?” and the individual replies “what the hell is life?”. Nobody really knows. Wallace says, “The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death. It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over” (Wallace, XVII). Technology is also a big distraction with the world. In today’s society it is hard for us to see the beauty around us because we are so focused on our electronic devices. Once people put down technology they will begin to realize the world is bigger than themselves, but due to technology, it was “hidden in plain sight” (Wallace, XVII). This human situation is similar to how the fish never noticed it was living in water, the one thing that was keeping it alive.

Another instance when Wallace uses repetition is when he talks about traffic. In the middle of his speech he states, “you finally get to the checkout line’s front, and you pay for your food, and you get told to ‘Have a nice day’ in a voice that is the absolute voice of death… and then you have to drive all the way home through slow, heavy, SUV-intensive, rush-hour traffic” (Wallace, XIV). Wallace continues to say, “if I don’t make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I’m gonna be pissed and miserable” (Wallace, XIV).  The initial thoughts are uncontrollable but the following thoughts are a choice. When practicing mindfulness one can shift their awareness and determine the outcome of a situation. Whether it may be happiness, sadness, or anger. Additionally, Wallace discusses traffic when he states, “…the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he’s trying to get his kid to the hospital, and he’s in a bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am: it is actually I who am in HIS way” (Wallace, XV). This quote illustrates that one can learn to build empathy and give others the most generous assumption, which increases mindfulness. Mindfulness is a hard thing to do but with practice one can learn to live more open minded. Another example of traffic used by Wallace is when he says, “the traffic is apt to be: very bad” (Wallace, XIII). In this scenario, he is anticipating that the traffic he is going to face in a couple of hours is going to be awful. The anticipation of negative outcomes is causing distress and already putting a damper on the day. Wallace is arguing that one should stop letting little things like traffic get in the way of what could potentially be a great day - live in the moment and enjoy it while it lasts. Wallace uses these examples of traffic to represent ones lack of mindfulness while going through their daily routine. Meanwhile he encourages his audience to increase their mindfulness because then they will be able to live freely and happily without letting little bumps in the road ruin their day. 

David Foster Wallace was a brilliant writer and speaker, which becomes evident when looking at his overall message of mindfulness. Wallace saw a different perspective on the world that most never come to see. This is apparent in his repetition of the metaphors of water and traffic. Through this repetition, he reaches a conclusion that it is important to practice mindfulness, because we will start to become one with ourselves. Through active participation of mindfulness one can begin to see a new perspective on life and hopefully begin to live more wholeheartedly. Everyone has a choice in life. Mindfulness leads to inner peace. One’s life doesn’t need to be peaceful for one to be at peace. 
