“This Is Water” is an inspirational speech that can be open to a variety of interpretations. Whether the audience interprets the speech as what the value of a liberal arts degree is, or to not be a self-centered person it can be looked at differently depending on the individual. The author of this speech, David Foster Wallace portrays his writing as an inspirational and moving text because he wants the readers to take away their own understanding from what he is saying. He held his commencement speech at Kenyon College for their annual graduation. He chose to deliver his piece here because he wanted college kids to take his message seriously, and because they are the people who will listen and be influenced the most by it. As you begin to evaluate his writing a lot of readers will easily dismiss his speech as something simple, and just say that the essay is about not being influenced by outside forces, and that there is more meaning than just saying you have a liberal arts degree, but I was actually able to interpret something completely different from it. I came to the conclusion that one of the main meanings of his essay was that it was okay to have a different point of view from everyone else, and to not dismiss the obvious. He uses metaphors, examples, and imagery to support his interpretation. 

Throughout the text the author uses a lot of literary devices such as irony, imagery, and examples to convey his message throughout the text. First he mentions a couple different examples to help the reader understand what he is trying to get across. At a glance you would just think he mentions point of view as something within a person, but I chose to interpret point of view as something that we all have differently depending on the individual. Our point of view is shaped by our life experiences, and our beliefs. Therefore, not everyone will come to the same conclusion about something, because we all see the world in our own view and not anyone else’s. In the text Wallace uses many examples to illustrate his ideas in one of his passages he goes on to say “the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people, given those people’s two different belief templates and two different ways of constructing meaning of experience “(XI). This passage is mentioning how the eskimos were stranded, and he continually points out that they were both deserted within the same circumstances, but within their different belief templates they came to two very different conclusions on the events that had transpired to save them. In the text Wallace also tells us to choose how we look at the world, and to not look at it as everyone else does, and I think this continues with his idea of how we won’t have the same view as everyone because we all have had different experiences in our life. This quote exemplifies his message about how different point of views can vary between each person. 

Wallace like many other authors uses metaphors and imagery in his examples to prove and show his many points. All the scenarios that he uses are open to different interpretations. Other than the eskimo story previously mentioned, the fish parable also supports the idea that everyone’s judgement could be different.  In the beginning of his speech, Wallace begins with a fish parable, saying “… 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 goes “What the hell is water” “(X). In this passage the author uses water as a symbol to help convey one of his main ideas of the story. He also uses personification to give the fish human like qualities, which makes it more understandable to college graduates or kids. Personifying the fish also creates this sense of imagery in his examples. In the parable water is a symbol for reality, or the obvious. He continues to say we should not overlook or overstate the obvious just because our life gets strenuous or overwhelming. 

Another literary tool that David Foster Wallace likes to introduce is the idea of imagery. He likes to use different kinds of images to help shape what we can imagine and see in our heads. When using imagery, he sometimes takes a more drastic tone, like when he mentions suicide on page XII “… 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.” This quote creates a clear picture in our head about what the author was thinking about when writing this, and it helps give us a mental image for what he is trying to say. This quote is so dramatic and important because a couple years later the author actually committed suicide. He was obviously in a bad state of mind. Knowing how the author lived we should be able to look at his words, and reflect on them for ourselves. This quote helps with the interpretation of the text because it relates so much to the authors life. Without imagery it would be hard for the author to really benefit from using examples because the reader wouldn’t be able to visualize them. 

Throughout the essay Wallace even decides to use a little bit of irony in some of his passages of writing. He begins his speech by saying “...if you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don’t be. I am not the wise old fish” (X). What is so ironic about this passage is that he actually does the opposite of what he said he wasn’t going to do. He actually precedes to tell the kids what to do as if he were the older fish. Another sense of irony that I found in the essay is when later on he mentions putting a gun to your head and committing suicide, but later on in his life he was so depressed he ended up killing himself. Him committing suicide doesn’t take away from his lessons and teachings it is just ironic because he mentions suicide when in fact he actually does commit suicide. The fact that he uses irony and contradicts himself sometimes shows that he might be conflicted with what he is saying, or they he just isn’t able to take his own advice.  

Wallace throughout his speech was able to portray his message through an entire group of young people. He did this to attempt to reach out to the generation that he thought would take his speech, and use it in their life.  He used literary tools such as irony, imagery, and metaphors to help convey his overall points. After reading his text I have come to the conclusion that we all have different point of views depending on the person, and to not overstate or miss the obvious.
