Kristi Phillips
Writing 122
Essay One
October, 24, 2019
Old Habits Die Hard
Have you ever been in a situation that you were driving on the highway after a long day at work, and somebody cut you off ? What would be your reaction? David Foster Wallace in his speech “This is Water” tries to show people how to live a good life and he argues that everyone has the choice to think critically and should make that choice to live a happy life. We should take Wallace’s speech very seriously and try and change ourselves from all the negative habits in our life. However, Wallace success on explaining how people let the little things affect their day to day but it is hard to change after hearing his speech because it’s difficult to break old habits, and old habits die hard.
Wallace explores the concept of exercising control over how and what you think. In order to fully explain his thoughts, Wallace uses an example of going to the grocery store after a long day of work. While describing a trip to the grocery store, Wallace states, "And look at how repulsive most of them are and how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem here in the checkout line, or at how annoying and rude it is that people are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line, and look at how deeply unfair this is: I've worked really hard all day and I'm starved and tired and I can't even get home to eat and unwind because of all these stupid goddamn people." The blunt tone of this quote reveals the frustration that he feels in this situation. Wallace uses the simile of a cow to describe the appearance of other customers and further emphasize how easy it is to make judgments. Additionally, Wallace continues to use descriptive phrases such as "dead-eyed" and "nonhuman" to dramatize the shopper’s lifeless presence. In the same sentence, Wallace uses both the words “annoying” and “rude” to reiterate just how frustrating this situation can be. Lastly, Wallace refers to the customer as “stupid goddamn people” which again portrays how aggravated he feels. However, people’s mood might get effected by the actions around us, sometimes it’s hard to control how you think or you feel. And your actions may be wrong.