
By looking at Wallace’s uses of societal imagery in his commencement speech titled “This is Water” we can make connections between the tedious acts of day to day life and the overall struggles that we all face. This is important because it really helps us take a step back and think about others experiences and what they are going through before we get too angry and make rash judgements. The three main examples of societal imagery that Wallace uses are the average adult day, supermarkets and traffic.

The first example of societal imagery that Wallace uses is the average adult day to graduating college. Wallace demonstrates this by saying “you get up in the morning, go to your challenging, white-collar, college-graduate job, and you work hard for eight to ten hours, and at the end of the day you’re tired and somewhat stressed and all you want is to go home.” (Wallace XIII) Wallace was delivering this speech at a college graduation, so when analyzing it you have to look at it from the perspective of a recent college graduate. College graduates have been going to class every day and are tired, just like adults who work every day and are tired. College graduates want to be able to relax, but they will not be able to, because they have to go find a job. Wallace makes this very clear when he says “You haven’t had time to shop this week because of your challenging job, and so now after work you have to get in your car and drive to the supermarket.” (Wallace XIII) 

Wallace doesn’t just compare the supermarket to finding a job, he compares it to life in general also. This is evident when Wallace says “and when you finally get there, the supermarket is very crowed, because of course it’s the time of day when all the other people with jobs also try to squeeze in some grocery shopping.” (Wallace XIII) Wallace was delivering this speech to college graduates who are going out into a crazy world filled with people all trying to find jobs like they are, so he compares this hectic time in the graduate’s life to a hectic supermarket.  He wants the graduates to understand that this point in their life is going to be hard and there will be unpleasant situations. Wallace demonstrates this when he says “the store is hideously lit and infused with soul-killing muzak or corporate pop and its pretty much the last place you want to be but you can’t just get in and quickly out.” (Wallace XIII) All of these descriptions of a supermarket are very depressing. Wallace is hoping that the words will have a very sobering effect on the graduates. He is trying to convey how depressing and monotonous their lives will soon become.  This brings up Wallace’s next point about the confusing times in life that everyone especially a college graduate will face. When talking about the confusing time in life Wallace says “you have to wander all over the huge, over-lit store’s confusing aisles to find the stuff you want and you have to maneuver your junky cart through all these other tired, hurried people with their carts.” (Wallace XIII) Life is confusing at times for everyone, especially for college graduates. They have just graduated college and are out looking for jobs along with all the other college graduates trying to maneuver their way through this crazy stage in life. Eventually though they will all find jobs just like when you go shopping in a supermarket you will eventually find what you came for. Although it is true that they have achieved this goal of finding a job the hardships do not end there, Wallace points to this when he says “and eventually you get all your supper supplies, except now it turns out there aren’t enough checkout lanes open even though it’s the end-of-the-day rush.” (Wallace XIII) Throughout everyone’s life there will be hardships, it never stops getting hard, but the important thing to think about is the goals that you accomplished on the way. If you stop and think for a moment these goals are everywhere like finally making it to a supermarket (graduating college), or trying to find a job (looking in the aisles for your supper supplies), and finally making it to the checkout lane (finally getting that job). 

Throughout “This is Water” Wallace uses the traffic to stand for the difficult situations that we will all face throughout our lives and how important it is in these situations to sit back and think about other people and what they are going through. Wallace begins to allude to this when he says “It’s the end of the work day and the traffic is apt to be: very bad.” (Wallace XIII) Wallace uses this example of societal imagery because at the end of a work day people are tired and just want to go home but they know that traffic is going to be bad and therefor it’s going to take way longer to get home than its supposed to. This is really representing times in our lives when we are tired and are faced with a difficult challenge. Foster is trying to show us then when faced with this challenge we should not get angry or upset but sit back and think about how other people are being affected by this challenge. This is very evident when Wallace says “In this traffic, all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way, it’s not impossible that some of these people in SUV’s have been in horrible auto accidents in the past, and now find driving so terrifying that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge, heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive.” (Wallace XV). Another thing we must think about in situation is what people are going through currently for example when Wallace says “Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he’s trying to get this 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) Wallace uses traffic to make us understand that we truly don’t know what other people are going through in their lives nor what they have been through. 

The speech “This is Water” is filled with many examples of societal imagery. Wallace uses this societal imagery to compare the mundane aspects of everyday life to the experiences that we are all going through. He uses the average work day and the supermarket to compare graduating college and finding a job. He also compares traffic to the difficult times in our lives that we will all face and uses that to help us understand that we have all been through things that make us act the way that we do. By using societal imagery, Wallace paints a very bleak and depressing image of modern life. However, through this very somber view of life, Wallace is able to show that there is a bigger picture and that we should stop being so selfish and think of other people.