While most commencement speeches maintain an uplifting and encouraging spirit, David Foster Wallace’s address in 2005 to the graduating class at Kenyon College broaches the subject of the value of their education with an unconventional, distressing analysis of human nature. He continually stresses that humanity ultimately cannot rid itself of its selfish motivations and proceedings with repetition of sightlessness. The different examples in the speech further establishes this flaw of blind self-absorbance in people. David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” serves as a stirring commencement speech, but also highlights the selfish nature of humanity with repetition of blindness to the reality of others’ perceptions and ideas in parable-like stories. 

The recurring motif of sightlessness begins with the parable of the younger fish that fail to see their true surroundings. At the mention of the water that has always been around them, the younger fish can only think, “What the hell is water?” (X). Although their environment allows the fish to survive, they pay no mind to the reality surrounding them. The simplest component of their situation remains unclear to them, even though it has encompassed them their whole life. The metaphor of the young fish insinuates that people do not bother to pause their busy lives to understand the stark realities of life until much later in life because humanity can think only of its own advancement. The immaturity and aloof natures of the younger fish suggests that “the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about” (X). The younger fish fail to be attentive to the uncomplicated matters of their experiences because it seems unimportant and pointless for them to pursue and because of the seemingly pressing distractions in their young lives. By not bothering to address their lack of knowledge on the subject further, the fish demonstrate the detached approach to progress. People remove matters that complicate immediate promotion from their line of vision and feign ignorance so that growth might not slow. However, without the realization of obvious realities excluding themselves, people can never come to understand and care for each other. The younger fish’s shortcoming illustrates humanity’s blasé manner of seeking out universal truths that are outside of individuals’ specific lines of focus.

Comparatively, in the second parable story, an atheist and a religious man cannot see past their own views to comprehend how the other man’s belief system develops. Although both men can reasonably justify their contrasting perceptions of religion, neither can be convinced of the other’s understanding. Wallace states that the two retain a “blind certainty, a close-mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn’t even know he’s locked up” (XII). People become blind to their own self-imprisonment because they remain assured of their own singular set of judgments of the world. Humanity does not allow itself to see that there could be more to living than the persistence of their own beliefs. Throughout history, the single truth prevails that each person retains “a deep belief that [he/she embodies] the absolute center of the universe” (XII). This oblivious view exemplifies the typical egotistical nature of humanity. Each person finds difficulty in recognizing a reality without himself/herself as the center which creates the self-serving basis of the world. Wallace mentions this shortcoming of humanity with understanding because the egotistical nature of people is unavoidable. The anecdote of the atheist and religious man represents the struggle of seeing the reason behind other’s beliefs and the existence of truths outside of one’s own judgments.  

Lastly, the grocery store situation asserts that people only want to complete their own agendas without seeing and understanding any other situations happening at the same time, and everyone else delays this process. Wallace brings up this setting to show that even in the regular mundane context of life, people struggle with their selfish natures. It is hard for one to understand that every person also just wants to accomplish his/her plans in the same manner. In this way, each person operates under the “automatic, unconscious belief that [he/she embodies] the center of the world, and that [his/her] immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world’s priorities” (XV). People tend to not have the vision of a world outside of themselves even though they are surrounded by people in the supermarket, which represents the opposite of the true reality. The self-centered approach of humanity causes the conflicts and problems between people, like misunderstandings and assumptions with people in grocery stores, because they cannot appreciate the reason behind other’s motives before their own. People adjust to their usual habits and become “a slave to [their] head and to [their] natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone” (XIII). Isolation results from the blindness to other’s predicaments, as each person rushes in the store to complete his/her own tasks, because association only occurs with understanding. One can only be alone in their world that concerns itself with matters involving a single person. The example of the grocery store delineates the selfish failure to appreciate dilemmas that do not relate to one’s own problems.

Wallace utilizes multiple allegorical stories in order to affirm people’s blindness to other’s circumstances due to an innate selfishness. The fish fail to appreciate their surroundings, the atheist and religious man ignore each other’s ideas, blinded by their own conceptions, and the grocery store frustration accentuates humanity’s unsympathetic outlook. Although these parables may cause humanity to appear hopeless, Wallace’s speech serves to awaken minds to look past any narcissistic views to understand and help others in order to create a sense of togetherness, uniting people and dissolving conflicts. 
