David Foster Wallace’s "This is Water"

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Wallace’s “This is Water” Essay
David Foster Wallace’s commencement speech at the 2005 Kenyon’s graduation of the liberal arts class is characteristic of intriguing clichés and allusions to real-life experiences and observations towards challenging the audience’s thought process. He emphasizes the need to break away from the norm by critiquing the use of didactic stories as a standard requirement of commencement speeches in the U.S. while also using the same story to introduce the main theme of his speech. Wallace employs different approaches to explore and present his key message that “important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about”. He posits that the graduating students have to exercise creative and effective thinking upon their completion of study in the field of field liberal arts. Such thinking, he argues, stems from the education gained throughout the course that precisely taught them how and what to think. It is a vital reality that the graduates have to face in their adult day to day life as they face situations demanding the exercise of their enhanced thought patterns that go beyond themselves to incorporate and accommodate divergent views and opinions.
In driving the point home, Wallace highlights a misleading perspective held by many students in thinking that they are beyond being taught how and what to think based on their merited qualifica...