Every graduation has its obligatory commencement speech. Colleges and high schools across the country listen to well-respected people offer advice about something that he/she thinks will benefit the audience. David Foster Wallace wrote a commencement speech called “This is Water” where Wallace claims that he does not want his speech to fall into the typical commencement speech genre, by telling stories as opposed to a quote teaching people how to think. Ironically through the stories he tells, he ends up inspiring his audience through the same methodology. In the beginning he sets the tone as casual and relatable and explains that he does not want his speech to be the “standard U.S. commencement speech, the deployment of didactic little parable stories.” 

Wallace begins his speech by setting a casual tone with the audience and tells a story. The story is about an older fish asking two younger fish how the water is. The younger fish look at each and question what water is. Wallace then says, “I am not the wise old fish. The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about” (pg X.) The irony in this sentence is that Wallace claims that he is not the wise old fish wanting to stand at the podium and impart knowledge through a quote teaching the audience how to think, but rather show them the mindset that he keeps for himself. He reasons to not be the wise old fish by telling the audience that he is not going to stand up there and tell the “younger fish” what water really is because he believes that to be the “standard U.S. commencement speech.” The irony though, is that even though he claims that he does not want to tell the audience what water really is, he in fact ends up doing so through examples and stories later in the speech. He uses the irony as an effective yet subtle way to speak and tell people what is wrong with the mindset most people live in. Wallace says most people live self-centered lives, claiming that his perspective is “hard-wired.” His argument goes as far to claim that this selfish approach to life is hard-wired in people. 

As the speech goes on and before he gets into what he really wants to talk about, he addresses what he believes everyone is thinking. In his casual tone he says, “So let’s talk about the single most pervasive cliché in the commencement speech genre, which is at a liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about a quote teaching you how to think” (pg XI.)  Wallace describes the typical commencement speech to be someone reading and analyzing a quote teaching his/her audience how to think. He veers away from the typical quote and uses analogies to teach his audience how to think instead. He explains throughout the speech that the human “hard-wired” way of thinking is that as individuals, we believe that we are the center of the universe and that everything that happens, good or bad, happens only to us and everyone else should respect that. Essentially, we know we are not the center of the universe, yet it is hard for us to admit.

 Then instead of the speech sounding like this is how every single person thinks and acts, he says that not everyone thinks this way. He empathizes by saying, “If you’re like me as a student, you’ve never liked hearing this, and you tend to feel a bit insulted by the claim that you needed anybody to teach you how to think, since the fact that you even got admitted to a college this good seems like proof that you already know how to think.” Personal point, yet ironic because right after he contradicts himself. In this quote, Wallace is attempting to defend that he does not want to fall into the typical genre. 

 He tells more analogic stories of people who believe that they are the center of the universe. He explains again that he is not preparing to lecture his audience on compassion or “other-directedness or all the so-called virtues” (pg XII.) He says, “It is a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default which is to be so deeply and literally self-centered and to see and interpret everything through this sense of self.” Rather than using a quote that many speakers of his caliber would believe to be inspiring, his angle is more so of himself and his vulnerability within his imperfections. He uses himself as an example to his audience and how he believes they can think positively and live their lives. 

Wallace finally brings in his final analogic story of a person leaving work during rush hour and having to go to the grocery store and wait in line, and goes through all of the things that could happen and frustrate you. But instead of allowing frustration, he says that we can use this time to think; “Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines give me time to think, and if I don’t make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I’m gonna be pissed and miserable every time I have to shop” (pg XIV.) Wallace uses these stories and analogies to show his audience another way of thinking. His speech performs his belief. By doing so, he fall into the “standard commencement speech genre” that he was trying to avoid but ultimately fell into.

Wallace attempted to write a commencement speech that did not fall into normal expectations. In a ‘normal’ speech, one might expect some kind of mind blowing, direct quote or something that should change the way the audience thinks, but the speaker tells that directly to the audience. In Wallace’s speech, he indirectly teaches his audience about his theory of mindset management.