
It is hard to read This is Water without examining yourself and your recent actions. Wallace’s writing style makes it more relatable, but his grasp on narcissism makes it palpable. Wallace wrote this speech about his struggles in efforts to lead others away from developing the vices that ultimately ended him.

Wallace begins his speech by telling a story of two young fish and their short conversation with a stranger. The younger fish are totally unaware that they are swimming in water, and an older fish points it out. They ask, “What the hell is water?” (Wallace X). The story hints at being oblivious to the point that even when the flaw is pointed out – you still fail to realize it. It is something so simple that without a deeper analysis of it, you would never realize it’s a huge preface of his speech. Wallace appears to be conveying the inexperience of youth, because he is. He is the older fish in the story, we are the younger fish - regardless of him claiming it not to be this way. I would agree with him, but he makes it all too obvious throughout the story that we are unaware of our infinitesimal and naive understanding of our world. Wallace is telling us that we do not know everything. Why does it matter? Because he wants to warn us of what can lie ahead. 

He later broaches how hard it is to stay focused and attentive whilst you struggle with the inner monologue going on inside of your head (XII). Wallace wants us to be prepared, least with knowledge, that if you do not exercise control over your mind - life will become unbearable as you go into the hell of adulthood, “how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectful adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head” (Wallace XII). This is why he tell us that learning how to think and exercise control over one’s thoughts is something liberal arts can help you refine (XIII). He literally prompts us to use our education to reform our minds into something we control, not something that controls us.

Wallace continues by outlining a day of being a working adult. He takes this narrative a step further than he had with the former piece. In the entirety of this story, it shows how selfish and undeniably engrossed we are in our own little world. Whether we are at a grocery store grinding our teeth at the over-enthusiasm of the cashier, or if we are getting cut off by every car on the highway – we never think about the hardships in the other person’s life. It is a hard truth that he was able to further impress by using a relatable presentation of it. He did not use an abstract archetype, rather he engaged his audience in a memorable way: he put us into someone else’s shoes. Someone that must be vain and conceited – ourselves. We fail to realize that everyone may be just as angry or tired as we are at the end of the day. Yet, our sole instinct is to grudgingly tolerate everyone else’s existence whenever it negatively affects us. Wallace is conveying this because he wants us to actually think for ourselves. It is these defining moments where you feel like shit, that you have the choice to act positively or negatively. He is trying to jar our mental state of royalty with this surreal example. It’s time to climb down from the throne and interact with all the other living, breathing, and feeling human beings. 

Wallace never overcame his vices. He died on September 12, 2008. But, one of the single greatest things he had to have done was share this view. “Other people’s thoughts and feeling have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.” (Wallace XII). Why do their feelings matter, isn’t it all about me? I mean as he said, we are hardwired from birth to be self-centered.  Wallace brings to attention just how important you are - to yourself, he does this to show just how repulsive this nature is. He showed us how we can overcome this sickness; we need to overcome our mind. He reveals his entire purpose for the speech at the end of the second paragraph, “…day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning” (Wallace XI). It is the simple things that can literally bore us to death. His story about being a working adult and another stressful day gives you an insight to how being self-consumed can drive you to misery. His goal was to open our eyes – he opened mine. He told us how consumed we are with ourselves – it is true, I am. He did more than point out our universal flaw; Wallace makes it clear what we need to do to overcome the vices that ultimately ended him. We must think.