
This is a graduation speech by David Foster Wallace, but unlike many graduation speeches he doesn’t sound “fun and breezy or grandly inspirational” (Wallace 8), because what he has to say and how he says it are far more important and useful to his direct audience and future audience. In this speech, David Foster Wallace aims to make us open our eyes to the thought that we are not the absolute center of the universe. He explains that we see everything from only our perspective, so it is our natural “default-setting” (Wallace 2) to ignore and discard everything outside of our skulls, but by the end of his speech Wallace steers us away from this kind of thought and towards being more conscious and aware of the world around us, with the use of his allegory, clichés, and personal experiences to relate to his audience and get his whole message across.

Wallace starts his speech right off with an allegory about the two fish. He says “There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet 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 1). We obviously have no idea why Wallace mentions this story until he actually begins his speech, at which it is very easy to see. Throughout the speech he asserts that we shouldn’t be so narrow-minded and he urges us to be more conscious of the world around us. Using this story as an opening is very successful in my opinion because after some thought; we can see ourselves as the fish. We just kind of swim on through life tending to never really look or think about what we are doing, but who is to blame the narrow-minded fish for not being so aware. We often like to think that our much more intellectually advanced selves would never muddle through life the same way, yet we do. The fish are literally surrounded by the water but no fish actually knows what the water really is. Just the same as the fish in the water we are surrounded by such a huge world but only seem concerned with ourselves, and it is this kind of living and thinking that Wallace wants us to steer away from. He wants us to be “well-adjusted” (Wallace 2). In terms of psychological issues it is almost always believed that, admitting is the first step, and here Wallace really wants the reader just to admit or simply realize that we – like the fish- go through life far too self centered and ignorant. Throughout the speech he begins to help us adjust, but in this first section and with the use of the story he just wants us to realize and accept our narrow-mindedness so that by the end of his speech we can become “well-adjusted” (Wallace 2), and with the implementation of the fish story in the very beginning of the speech we are forced to accept our self-centeredness which is the base for the rest of the speech. 

There are a few instances where Wallace uses and addresses different clichés to exercise his point throughout this speech. As mentioned, Wallace attempts to get us to realize our way of thought early in the speech and then to get us to move away from that thought towards the end. Another way that he successfully does this is through the use of these clichés. On page two and three Wallace says “I have come gradually to understand that the liberal-arts cliché about “teaching you how to think” is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: “Learning how to think” really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think” (Wallace 2-3). With this he wants us to realize that it is a choice what we can think like. Wallace is urging us to hopefully be able to exercise more control on our own minds. He even says, “It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed” (Wallace 3). In that statement, Wallace clearly explains exactly what he means with the use of that cliché. He even successfully explains that if you cant do this in life you will be “totally hosed” which is a somewhat comical but very real way of alerting the readers that in order to live life to the fullest, one must be able to think like this. Although he uses some other clichés, this one statement is what really resonates with the reader, because it again points the reader in the direction that Wallace hopes for them to think by the end of his speech. 

Throughout the beginning of this speech, Wallace gives us examples and statements to get us to understand how self-centered we really are. But, now is when the speech takes a turn. We go from simply understanding the way we think and live and why we do, to really learning how to change this way of thought. This is the final step in Wallace’s speech. The way he is able to connect with the reader and assert his final point is through the use of personal experience. He uses a simple example of himself after a hard day of work again, and all he wants to do is go home, eat, and relax. However he cant because he needs to go get groceries. Inside the grocery store it is impossible to not be angry with all the kids, the music, crowded lines, repulsive people, and more. This situation leads David Foster Wallace to say “it's going to seem, for all the world, like everybody else is just in my way, and who are all these people in my way? And look at how repulsive most of them are and how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem here in the checkout line, or at how annoying and rude it is that people are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line, and look at how deeply unfair this is: I've worked really hard all day and I'm starved and tired and I can't even get home to eat and unwind because of all these stupid god-damn people” (Wallace 6). Wallace even describes this kind of thought in this situation as “the automatic, unconscious way that I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life when I'm operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the center of the world and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world's priorities” (Wallace 6). Even the man telling the readers about this way of thought explains that even he thinks the same way, but he goes on to explain that we cant afford to live life like this. This is where he wants us not to fall into our “default-setting” and to be more “well-adjusted”. He goes throughout this speech telling us about the way we think, and here towards the end he really connects with us through this personal experience. We can all relate to this example in some way. Not that we are all day-in and day-out workers, but we still get stressed and frankly pissed off at the world around us because we think it is supposed to be all about ourselves. That is how Wallace is able to finally and surely connect with his readers and get them to realize how we can become “well-adjusted”.

Throughout this entire speech, David Foster Wallace uses allegory, clichés, and personal experience to connect with his readers, and get his major point across. It is no doubt that he has an important message to give in this speech, but he does it in two parts. In the beginning he hopes to get his readers to recognize their typical way of thought and except it, so that by the end with the use of his personal experiences the readers can understand how to alter the way they perceive life and live a little less self centered. In the very end of his speech, he relates back to the allegory in the very beginning by stating that we must live less self-centered and look at the world with a little more awareness. He says “It is about simple awareness — awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, that we have to keep reminding ourselves, over and over: “This is water, this is water.” (Wallace 8).  With his multiple uses of allegory, clichés, and personal experiences, this is the final assertion made by Wallace, and the one thing he wants to resonate the most with the reader by the time he steps off of his podium.