

David Foster Wallace’s, This Is Water, is a speech that was initially performed for a college commencement. Its main purpose was to make them aware of the reality of college and adult life containing tedious routine whilst also expressing a few messages through the main ideas and images used. During this speech, Foster uses the main ideas to explore and express the messages he wants to convey to the audience. One of these messages is that life is what is the individual makes of it. He expresses the messages and teachings through the main ideas which he uses images to present successfully throughout. These images include the “water”, which represents reality and routine and also the repetition of  “the default setting” which changes people’s perspective of the reality identified by “water”. These two images clearly identify the basis of his main message as they need to understand what reality is to move away from it. Ultimately allowing the audience to have the tools to enter adulthood with the mindset that their lives are what they make of they make of it.

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. The use of this image is to identify the reality that everybody experiences during everyday life. The identification of “water” in this case allows Wallace’s audience to understand the roots of his main message. To live life to the full Foster believes that the individual needs to identify reality and what it consists of, which is why he states it so early in the speech though the story of the two-young fish. This initial identification sets up Wallace to continue his message through the use of another image the “default setting”.

Wallace also relates his main message to the image of the “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 personalized to an individual’s 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 for the user. 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 that seems to be ‘encrypted’ along with it. This is important as it allows the audience to clearly understand what message is trying to be conveyed, “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 implies that it is not a personal fault as it lies within everyone from the very start of the minds existence. This “default setting is portrayed badly by Wallace, something no individual wants to be associated with. This helps Wallace to argue his message that life is what an individual makes of it, as he shows the ‘dark’ side that an individual will be left with if his message is not followed.

Wallace then goes on to give the audience some ‘hope’ that there is a way to get away from the “default setting” and live life to the maximum, “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. This portrays Wallace’s main message that life is what an individual makes of it. The quote shows that if somebody is strong enough to break free from this norm of the “default setting” then the individual can change their way of life for the better, which is his overall message.

Wallace also demonstrates that to live life to the full an individual needs to be comfortable in their own skin. “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. This self-realization would allow for an individual to practice Wallace’s message of making the most of life.  

During the final paragraph the image “water” is once again used to emphasize the importance of identifying reality, to pursue an idealistic world “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 recognized and acted upon. He shows that this is a necessity to live life to its fullest as well as allowing people to realize that the world does not revolve around themselves. The techniques he used throughout the speech to do this was the repetition of the “default setting” and the use of water to represent normality. This emphasized the whole importance of reality as well as helping to express Wallace’s other main ideas which all contributed to the overall purpose of his speech, to show the audience how to live life the way that it is desired.