Foster Wallace Essay

Pocahontas Simon
English 1001
Mr. Torrey Williams
21 October 2014

David Foster Wallace writes “This is Water” to express to college seniors that everyone has a choice of the way he or she thinks. In this essay, Wallace shows how college seniors have a default setting of the way a person’s mind functions. He then use examples of his credibility or ethos, pathos which he expresses an emotional appeal to the audience, and logos. Wallace creates an argument by using all three examples to support his statements being made in his essay.
In Wallace’s essay, he makes a significant appearance of his credibility. Wallace accomplishes this by telling the reader that he will not make a notion on college seniors because he was once in their shoes, but now he has mastered that stage and matured as an adult. When David gets the point across about the young and old fish at the beginning of his essay he states, “There are two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet . . . what the hell is water.” He is saying that he understands how it is to receive information and lectures from people older than him. Therefore, he is not saying that he knows everything that happens to young people, but at a point in his life, he once experienced the trials and tribulations that college seniors go through. As David continues throughout his speech, he uses ethos to appeal to the reader in his daily life routine. Wallace states, "But then you remember there’s no food at a home . . . your fury out on the lady working the register." This example shows the regular workings of society and how people have to put their pride aside to be something that they are not. By this, many of the adolescents that can relate to Wallace’s essay are able to understand his statements being made. The purpose of his tone and deference shown in this essay makes it easier so his audience can relate to his information supported. As Wallace showed his credibility, his pathos also shows a significant appearance throughout the passage. Probably the most effective, appeal to the reader that Wallace uses in his entire essay was when he talks about how people don’t realize what they are worshiping. Wallace says, “Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious . . . fully aware that that’s what you’re doing.” Throughout his speech Wallace is saying that we as people don’t realize some of the things we are doing and the thoughts that flow through our head. By David stating that he is having an effect on the audience because they can relate to what he is mentioning. As Wallace transitions through his speech he also states, “The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is the real freedom." As a result David is stating that life is what you make out of it, so you have an option to be happy or depressed. David’s pathos within his essay had an effect on the way people read his essay because his tone was very calm therefore, people will have a better understanding where he is coming from, rather if his tone was upsetting.
David’s logos are also utilized as a method of appeal throughout his speech to persuade the audience. Wallace accomplishes by showing his logic by beginning his essay starting off talking about the two young fish and the older fish. David begins by saying, "The immediate point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance.” Wallace explains the importance of the story he previously told in this passage about what the hell is water. There is no true emotional appeal in this passage, instead he appeals to the audience logically as university graduates by defining the story in terms of a more formalist approach. From there, Wallace continues to talk about his logistics, he then uses a more logical approach to his argument. He states, "Look, if I choose to think this way, fine, lots of us do . . . to be a choice. Thinking this way is my natural default setting." This time, he contends that we have to be reasonable with people, and not just get annoyed with them for being in our way. A person never knows what someone is going through at a point in time. By this, Davis is saying that we can't think of ourselves as the center of the universe; and it follows logically that we aren't. David Foster Wallace demonstrated with “This is Water” that he understands situations from his pass experience. His tone of words are down to earth and meek, but the way he mentions certain things throughout the passage are not very pleasant. The message that is shown in his speech is that everyone has a default setting of the way he or she thinks, but it is up to that person of how they function their mind. Wallace accomplishes all of his arguments by using examples of ethos, pathos, and logos from his pass experience shown throughout his passage.