

David Forster Wallace’s, This Is Water, is a speech that was initially performed for a high school graduate class. Its main purpose was to make them aware of the reality of college and adult life containing tedious routine whilst also expressing a few main ideas through certain stories and experiences. The main ideas focused on by Wallace included the thought that the audience is in control of their own life, and that their life will be what they make of it, as well the point that the world doesn’t revolve around one individual. These main ideas are all related to the image of the “water” used throughout which represents reality and routine in the lives of people. Throughout the speech all these main ideas are emphasised by David Foster Wallace’s use of repetition of the “default setting” but more importantly this repeated phrase changes people’s perspective of the “water”.

Initially Wallace introduces the audience to “water”, mentioning it during the first paragraph. This phrase and particularly the word “water” is used in the introduction and also during the concluding paragraph. “‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?’ .... ‘What the hell is water?’” (Wallace 5). This initial story about fish passing one another is used to represent to show the normality and routine of everyday life, in this case the water. It isn’t thought about, it just seems to be there and occur during the life of a fish just like routine occurs in most people’s lives as well. Wallace uses this to introduce his first idea that people need to identify this reality or water first, so that they can live life to the full. He starts to identify how to do this by the use of repeating the phase “default setting”.

The phrase “default setting” away from the speech makes the audience think of a gadget or a console like the latest iPhone or Xbox, brand new and untouched with this factory setting encrypted on to it, otherwise described as the default setting. This allows the audience to think, even before Wallace continues on with his speech, that this “default setting” is able to be altered and personalised to your ideal setting. And that although this seems like an unnecessary effort at first to, for example, change the screensaver to family or loved ones, or to even download that latest app, in the future it will make life that slightest bit easier and more enjoyable. So this thought process allows the audience to outline the rest of speech and its main ideas before it has even been spoken.

The first time that the “default setting” is mentioned by Wallace, he is using it to describe the selfish attitude of humans in the world by using stories and experiences to back up his point of:

“We rarely think about this sort of natural,

Basic self-centeredness because it’s so socially repulsive. But it’s pretty much the

Same for all of us. It is our ‘default setting’, hard wired in our brains at birth” (Wallace 7). 

Here Wallace introduces us to this idea “default setting” for the first time, mentioning one of the main ideas of the speech to do with the population being egocentric. But although he accuses the audience of this, he sort of implies that it is not a personal fault as it lies within everyone from the very start of the minds existence. This relates back to the idea of the iPhone with the factory settings at this point, as they are all created with this same encryption similar that to the human races mindset which seems to make the reality of “water” boring and hard to persevere through. 

Wallace then goes on to give us some ‘hope’ that there is a way to change when the phrase reappears later on.

“People who can adjust their natural default setting in this way are often described as being

‘Well adjusted’, which I suggest to you is not an accidental term” (Wallace 8).

This quote is relating to one of the few main ideas that ‘you control your own life, and that life is what you make of it’. Wallace in this part of his speech tells the audience that it is hard to move away from such a natural setting like that, but it is needed if to live life and reality to the fullest. Moving away from this setting means to be aware of the reality of the world and people and the possible situations that they could be experiencing. And when he says “I suggest to you this is not an accidental term” he expresses the difficulty that this mindset possesses, as it cannot come on its own or “accidentally” but needs to be worked for. Overall here the use of the “default setting” Is used successfully to show with effort you can control the way the public live and look at life allowing for perseverance to create a better reality.

The next use of the default setting is slightly different in the sense that it doesn’t just relate to others but also what the audience thinks of themselves. “Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly…. They are default settings” (Wallace 9). In this Wallace is saying that people who always strive to look better or the best will always end up feeling ugly as they will start to change and ultimately lose this beauty as they die a “million deaths”. The speaker wants the audience to focus on what they have rather than have a constant struggle, which could be called selfish, similar to that of the main idea of people being the center of their own universe. 

During the final paragraph the image “water” is once again used to emphasise the importance of identifying reality, 

“we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

‘This is water’

‘This is water’ ” (Wallace 17).

The audience now understands the importance of understanding what is “so real and essential” (Wallace 17) and Wallace’s use of the repetition of the “default setting” had helped them gain this understanding. In this case Wallace actually repeats “this is water” to once again reiterate its sheer necessity to be understood and remembered to allow the graduate/audience to live and experience life to its maximum.

To conclude, Wallace successfully creates the idea that reality, or “water” in this case, needs to be recognised and acted upon. He shoes that this is a necessity to live life to its fullest as well as allowing people to realise that the world does not revolve around themselves. One of the techniques he used throughout the speech to do this was the repetition of the “default setting” which emphasised the whole importance of reality as well as helping to express Wallace’s other main ideas which all contributed to his speech throughout.