
In David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water”, he addresses what it actually means to think outside of your own head which then leads to a more open minded point of view.  David Wallace uses different metaphorical stories to convey to us how to think about what may be going on in someones head.  Wallace’s speech opens with a story about two young fish swimming in the ocean.  As they are swimming, an older fish passes by and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?”  After a while, one of the younger fish says “what the hell is water?(Wallace, X)”  This story that Wallace opened with has a symbolic meaning.  The meaning is that many realities are very obvious, sitting right in front of you, yet at the same time they are the hardest to talk about or even see.  The point Wallace is trying to convey is that once you learn how to think with a more open mind, then you just might be able to see these realities and discuss what they are.  This is an example of how Wallace uses metaphors to get his ideas across.  This idea is important because, when it comes to scholarship or really anything in life that requires a deeper thinking, its hard to understand what is actually going on however, once you view what is going on with a more open mind or maybe from a different perspective, you can think about that more deeply and therefore more clearly. 

The next symbolic story Wallace tells is about is about two men, one a christian and one an atheist discussing the existence of God.  The atheist tells the christian a story about how one time he got lost in a blizzard and actually tried to pray to God.  The atheist obviously made it out of the blizzard okay and the christian says, “Well then you must believe now.”  This answer was followed by the atheist rolling his eyes and saying, “No, man all that was was a couple of Eskimos happened to come wandering by and showed me the way back to camp (Wallace, XI).”  Wallace tells us that this story is an example of how one experience could mean two totally opposite things to two different people.  Therefore, you are given a choice of what to think about.  This point of this story is to try and get one to realize that they have a choice of what to think.  Once again, another metaphor from Wallace.   

Wallace states that many different people have the mindset that they are the absolute center of the universe (Wallace, XII).  Many people think with the mindset that their opinion is right, and another persons interpretation is wrong, which is not typically true.  You must be able to look at whatever situation is being interpreted from everyones point of view then, once you can do that, you will be able to examine what is happening with a more open mind.  As Wallace said, “The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor (Wallace, XII).”  Notice how the word, “you”, is repeated and capitalized.  This is another one of Wallace’s methods to grab ones attention.  Even though it is hardwired into your brain, once you gets past this mindset and is able to let others opinions and feelings into your mind they will be able to see other sides of any situation or problem and breaking this mindset is what makes one “well-adjusted.”  This is how you control, become conscious, and become aware of the meaning you construct in any situation.

The major lesson Wallace gives in his speech starts with you imagining that you had a long day at work.  Naturally, after an eight hour shift, at the end of the day you are tired and stressed out.  So once you are done all you want to do is go home, make a good relaxing meal, settle down and watch some television, then go to bed not long later because you have to do it again in the morning.  Then you realize you have no groceries to make dinner because you have been at work all day so you never had any time to go shopping.  You then you must go to the grocery store.  Of course, at the end of the work day, it is rush hour so traffic is terrible and it takes way longer to get the the store than it should.  Now, because many people are in your exact same situation, the grocery store is very crowded.  Finally, you have all your groceries and its time to check out, only to see that the lines are all extremely long.  Once you finish checking out, the cashier tells you to “have a nice day” in a dark depressing voice (Wallace, XII-XIV).  So the point of this story Wallace tells is that everyone is going through the same thing.  Everyone else stuck in traffic wants nothing more than to get to the store, get their groceries, and go home and relax, just like you.  This leads back to the idea that many people think they are the absolute center of the universe.  You may be getting angry at all the traffic, people at the store and long lines but, you must consider how everyone else feels.  Not just you, but the person in line in front of you and behind you at the store wants to go home to make his or her dinner and relax just as much as you.  So, once again, once you break this mindset, you will be able to control, become conscious, and become aware of the meaning you construct then, you can apply to more important things in life.  Wallace uses repetition of things that would make the average man mad to help get his point across.  This story, is also a metaphor, which Wallace once again uses to grab the audience’s attention.  Throughout this part of Wallace’s speech, he repeats things that would make someone angrier and angrier to make you really feel the emotion he is trying to convey. 

The overall concept of the address Wallace gives is that you must be able to look at a particular situation from any point of view.  You want to be “well-adjusted” so you are able to see an idea from every point of view, consider each one, then think about the most logical answer.  Wallace makes this idea evident with the repetition of the fact that one must always think about how other people view the situation.  Wallace also makes this idea clear with a long series of metaphors that grab your attention.  Once you view what is going on with a more open mind or maybe from a different perspective, you can think about the situation more deeply and therefore more clearly.
