In David Foster Wallace’s This is Water one he was constantly saying “in my” throughout the whole text. It was used in multiple ways to emphasize the main point of the reading. The author uses it by relating to the readers, furthering his main point by using it in real life examples, and compares it to what he thinks should be actual. Explains it vividly with very descriptive diction and making it easy for the reader to understand without using extremely difficult diction as well.

The main point of This is Water is to address the fact people need to look on the brighter side of things. The author is constantly saying “in my way” or “in my own.” It makes it easy for the reader to relate to the reading and instantly understand the authors main point. The main point of the reading that I took from reading this was that the simple things, the things right in front of us are the things that we easily miss. The simple things we allow to slip past us and we end up being extremely pessimistic about everything that we should not be about in life.

When David Foster Wallace said “in my” he is saying that we are ultimately all naturally selfish. People have a natural instinct to be pessimistic and look at things without any concern for anybody else life. That people naturally put themselves before others and think that their life is more important like in the grocery store. In the grocery store the author says “in my way” which is the way most people think when in reality people are just trying to do same thing as you. That naturally nobody thinks that others have things going on in their lives and that they are just inconsiderate towards others.

David Foster’s sentence structure also played a heavy role in his overall success of getting the theme across to his audience. He uses simple sentences, and within these simple sentences he usually makes a simple statement. Making it seem as if this is a easy concept to grasp. The structure the author uses is very important in how he emphasizes specific points. He also uses simple sentences with blatant topics, making his point obvious in the statement. Likewise, he also uses a lot of complex sentences for his more complex, less obvious points when he makes you actually think. For example, “This question gets tricky,” or “ Paying attention to what's going on inside me,” (Foster Introduction XII). Foster was very blunt and makes his point very clear. Here, “We rarely talk about this sort of natural, basic self- centeredness, because it's so socially repulsive, but it's pretty much the same for all of us, deep down. It is our default-setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth,” a complex sentence with a complex idea that makes us think (Foster Introduction XI). 

The authors diction and connotation also played a role of how his overall message was delivered. He spoke in basic terms, nothing to complex but also not too basic it made the readers feel it was too simple. It helped process his overall message because it made it easier to grasp the points his was trying to get across. “The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing comes in,” it was basic, but got his point across and was easy for the readers to understand and take what he intended us to from it (Foster Introduction XIV). Along, with his diction and connotation, he used many real world examples to relate to the reader. He used an example being in the grocery store and an entire scenario based around it. It included many different people you would encounter and it was very realistic and easy for us to relate too. 

“In my” is used in so many different ways allowing the author to get his point across in many different ways allowing people who do not get it the first way, to have the opportunity to get it the second or third way. Each way with different support and ideas to still bring it back to the central idea of the reading. The author does all of this while still using it similarly each time to give it more of a backbone, giving it more depth and support each time it is said. His argument becomes more valid with the more support each time it is used. This helps progress his main point or thematic concerns to be addressed and argued further. It allows him to be more persuasive and have the readers have a full understanding of how he feels. It also helps give different perspectives which in turn give more than one way for his concerns to be taken in. 