Close-mindedness will lead a person down a path of self-destruction. In, “This is Water,” by David Foster Wallace, readers are taken on a journey of why the thought of suicide may appear in some people’s minds. David Foster Wallace does this by repeating words that relate to “death,” for example, dying, and suicide. Along with using repetition, David Foster Wallace uses imagery to depict the struggles that occur in adult lives that ultimately lead to selfish negative thoughts. Using repetition and imagery David Foster Wallace gives the readers the surreal experience of the negative thoughts that lead people on the path to self-destruction… Literally. 

David Foster Wallace presents the break down of how people naturally think through the cliché used in his commencement speech. “ Liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about quote teaching you how to think.” (XI) People need to be taught how to think because all people have a natural default setting that is self-centered, selfish, and close-minded. Liberal Arts can be broken down into academic subjects like literature, philosophy, or mathematics. These subjects objectives are not about just providing people with information, and requiring them to recite the information, rather to understand what is being asked, and learn how to think to explain what is being asked. In the text David Foster Wallace explains that it’s harder for people to understand how to properly think, because naturally they are in default setting. Being in this natural default setting people struggle with thinking about others before themselves. One of the reasons for this problem is because the only emotions that can be felt by an individual person are their own. “Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what to think.” (XIII) Controlling your own thoughts allows a person to make rational decisions with no bias opinions. David Foster Wallace states that people must exercise “some” control over how and what they think. The reason is because some things shouldn’t require thought, (such as eating when your stomach begins to growl) it should be a natural instinct. Whereas total control over all of your thoughts can cause a lot of conflict within oneself, making it difficult to come up with a decision. If one does not learn how to think the confinement within ones own thoughts and feelings can be detrimental, these confined thoughts could be misconstrued as suicidal thoughts.

Being confined in one’s own mind can cause a person to overthink situations, and make them give negative connotations towards simple problems. These negative connotations are what David Foster Wallace wants to shed light on. These negative connotations can be misinterpreted in a person as thoughts that life is terrible and maybe not worth living, like the thoughts of a suicidal person. David Foster Wallace introduces readers to the mindset of suicidal person by repeating words that give off the connotation of  “death.” David Foster Wallace states that, “Adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in the head. They are dead long before they pull the trigger.” (XII) People who commit suicide are too confined in their own minds, and filled with negative thoughts, that the only result to their problems they believe is death. Shooting themselves in the head is like ending the producer of a bad product; in this case the bad product is these negative thoughts. The real question is, how do these people get into this state of mind?  Well it all comes from those first thoughts or the “Absolute voice of Death” (XIV) this voice is the negative thoughts that push a person to believe that death is a result to their problems. People who are close-minded and focus only on their own thoughts and emotions choose to have unconscious (selfish, self-centered) thoughts rather than having conscious thoughts (which pertain to the understanding of others thoughts). Unconscious thoughts are thoughts that are considered to be our instincts, which in David Foster Wallace describes as the natural default setting. The natural default setting results in people only thinking for themselves. Not thinking about other people’s feelings is a main concern when the violent act of suicide occurs. The people who commit suicide don’t think about how their decisions can affect the people they love or just others in general so they make the selfish unconscious decision to kill themselves.

Along with using repetition to portray the depressing, selfish mindset of people who commit suicide, David Foster Wallace uses imagery in his writing to construct how this mindset originally begins. An example of this imagery is,“ The store is hideously lit and infused with soul-killing muzak or corporate pop and is pretty much the last place you want to be but you cant just get in and quickly out.”  (XIII) In this scenario David Foster Wallace begins to explain how daily routines such as attending a grocery store can be perceived in a negative light through the eyes of a person with suicidal intent. David Foster Wallace elaborates on how the world is perceived by people who want to commit suicide by providing another example of a daily routine being seen negatively. “ I can dwell on the fact that the patriotic or religious bumper sticker always seem to be on the biggest, most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest, most inconsiderate and aggressive drivers.” (XIV) In this example David Foster Wallace uses words such as disgusting, selfish and ugly to give off the pessimistic vibe, which accurately describes how suicidal people think, and feel. Overall David Foster Wallace was trying to convey through his use of imagery that people could have negative selfish thoughts to others and the outside world, during daily activities. The act of suicide originates from close-minded people with selfish thoughts, and negative views on the world who want a way to free themselves from the confinement of their own minds. David Foster Wallace gives a thorough description of how this procedure goes in the mind of a suicidal person by using repetition, and imagery in his piece of literature, “This is Water.” David Foster Wallace opens his reader’s eyes to the struggles that happen within a suicidal person. These struggles are ones that occur in everyone’s lives, but only the ones who know how to think are the ones who are able to overcome these struggles.
