- In 300 words or less, summarize the speech and show (with framed quotes and paraphrases from the text) what you believe to be the author’s three main points/arguments. Support with textual evidence and include your own initial response to the material.
- Do you agree with DFW’s main arguments? Why or why not?
- Is DFW talking about, or referring to empathy (though he never uses the word)? Or is he hinting at something else?
- Find one DFW quote that evoked a strong response. Paste the direct quote from his piece, then write a few sentences in which you challenge or support his statement.
- In his speech “This is Water”, David Foster Wallace focuses on how “the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about” (2). He connects this idea to a fish not knowing what water is, as they simply dismiss its existence as it is something they experience so often. He presents the idea of how “learning to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think” (4). Wallace tells the crowd of students that they have the ability to choose how they think about certain situations and what perspective they use in everyday life. He uses the example of getting mad at people when they cut you off in traffic, while in reality they could be in a hurry for an emergency reason. By exercising the ideas he proposes, it allows people to “choose how [they] construct meaning from experience” (4). By being able to choose the way they think about certain situations, it allows people to decide what really matters and deserves their attention. While simultaneously showing them what doesn’t matter.
- I believe that DFW’s main arguments make sense, and I am able to see quite a bit of truth behind them. DFW talks a lot about perspective and how if people make the conscious decision to be a kinder person, then they will ultimately be able to find more meaning in their everyday lives. I agree with the idea that it is very difficult to make the decision to try and find the silver lining in everyday interactions, but that it is definitely worth it in the end.
- I can see how someone could believe that DFW is talking about empathy in his speech, but I believe that his speech is more about perspective. Empathy, in my eyes, is more about feeling how others do and trying to put yourself in their shoes. It sounds to me more like he is referring to aspects of sympathy, such as being mindful of what others could be going through, thus making people behave in a more positive and forgiving manner towards others.
- “There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship” (7). Being an atheist, myself, I really don’t agree with what DFW is trying to say here. He goes on to describe how everyone worships something different, but I believe that he is simply describing how everyone values something different. Having things that one values is never necessarily the single defining factor that one worships. Everyone gets to choose the things they value in life, even if they choose not to worship or praise anything.
