Writers have mended their thoughts, opinions, and messages into writings, allowing readers to react, interpret, and carefully analyze text as they see fit. David Foster Wallace did just that in his famous “This is Water” lecture at a commencement ceremony informing students about the advice he has picked up on in life. While giving great advice, Wallace was able to make people question how they can change to better their own life and gave people a sense of hope. In David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water,” Wallace used unique analogies and comparisons to prove that the text should be interpreted in a manner that shows society needing a reality check, people needing to learn how to think, and David using this speech as a cry for help. 

As a human, we have the opportunity to make the free choices that we please. We can say, do, or behave any way that we would like. Because of this, Wallace states, “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty little, unsexy ways every day.” (XVI). In our society today, many people mainly only lookout for themselves and that is it. People have stopped lending a hand out to one another and it has deteriorated the reality that we live in. On the streets, people will walk by without acknowledging one another and many people tend to focus on doing something better rather than helping someone else out. For example, when Wallace talked about the people waiting in line at the grocey store, this is what he meant. Many people will not go out of the way to help others even when they are given the opportunity. If people begin to listen to the advice that Wallace has to offer, then our society would be better off. The reputation that so many people are so concerned about keeping up with apparently is not worth it to just go out of the way for. The awareness that David Foster Wallace is giving out is going to allow readers to make a difference in their social interactions and by reading “This is Water” many students and even parents could possibly change our society around if they look at the meaning of this passage deeply enough. 

As Wallace has pointed out to rethink the small cunning actions that our society performs to one another, he wants us to become brighter, friendlier, and more intelligent people that are able to be innovative. The text states, “Learning how to think" really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. 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 or will not exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.” (XIII). Wallace is trying to make sure the reader knows to think before they speak. Throughout the speech he uses repetitive diction to help get his message across that people constantly do things in routine and will not take a step out of their confort zone. That is where so many people get themselves in trouble, because they do not know how to think and when to shut their mouths. Also, Wallace is trying to get across there are certain things people just let slip through while they really should be paying attention to it and actually experience it instead of spending hours checking social media and focusing on the lives of everyone else. As time goes on, we are starting to lose the amount of people that possess these traits and Wallace wants us to pick their traits back up.

With the intention to show a cry for help, Wallace talks about suicide which no one picked up on until after the fact. As David Foster Wallace said, “It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.” (XIII). As a reader, this is very alarming. David Wallace put this in the passage as a cry for help because he later went on to commit suicide three years after this passage was released. Considering he said this statement about how he has already been dead long before he committed suicide, that must have meant he had been feeling this way this whole time. Therefore, the relevance is way more important now because he is speaking from a deep and dark place and David is trying to convey hidden messages. He wants the reader to be able to see that if our world is crumbling piece by piece and if it keeps heading in this direction, we are in for some trouble. “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?” This metaphor by Wallace has proved that people are so unaware of what is going on in society and are so focused on themseleves that they do not even realize what is happening in the world. This is why he has been hinting at the reader to do more to benefit our society. David wants us to leave our footprints on this earth in a positive way and by utilizing his advice as much as possible, it could really change the world for the better.

In conclusion, the words of David Foster Wallace have so much relevance, especially after he committed suicide. Reading the passage at first, it had an impact, but after hearing about David committing suicide, the story is seen is a whole new perspective. Every single word he spoke was his cry for help, but yet could inspire a reader. His words of wisdom on how we need to take a step back and think are valid. In the eyes of Wallace, impulsive decisions are not necessarily the best way to approach a situation. Wallace also stated our awareness of society and what is going on in this world, and sociability has just gone downhill. But a change is going to come and we will not sit in sorrow wait for things to happen. As a reader of “This is Water”, by David Foster Wallace, his words of wisdom will give new perceptions to many people and if people follow what he said, our world will change for good.
