Analysis Essay

Essay: This is Water by David Foster Wallace

Analysis plays a big part in educating students in the classroom setting. Through analyzing different studying materials, the students can relate to them and understand them better. Thus, analysis has an integral value in the classroom. Through analysis, complex ideas and points can be broken down into digestible and well-understood concepts in the classroom. Further, it can be used as an aid to teaching. In this assignment, the analysis of the speech that was given by David Foster Wallace during a graduation ceremony at Kenyon College will be analyzed. Through the analysis, David’s points will be broken down to make them easy to understand. According to David Foster Wallace, in this speech, “This is Water,” he fosters the idea that education's real value is achieved when a person chooses to think.

When starting his speech, David gives a didactic parable-ish story. The story is about a big fish that meets small fish in the water and asks them, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” The small fish have no idea what water is. David uses the story to foster his idea that most people do not know the immediate things surrounding them (Farnam Street Media, 2019). In this case, the two small fish should have had the idea that they are swimming in water. That is the exact situation that most college graduates find themselves in. Since they have completed their education, they perceive that they know everything that goes around them. The hard truth is that they barely know a thing about the outside world. After graduation, one begins a new life where they have to fend for themselves and their families. It is a new world that requires real knowledge, thinking, and minimal arrogance.

David Foster use a combination of two key rhetoric tools: scenario and figurative language. In scenario as a rhetorical tool, the author use fictionized accounts where a fish is given the ability to talk so as to bring out the concept behind the complex concept which in this case is one’s surroundings and thinking. In this case, David Foster fictionizes the account to ease the process of comparative analysis of the two conditions. The second rhetoric tool in the parable of the fish is figurative language through the use of analogy which refers to comparison of two things to show their similarities. This is evident as David Foster compares the small fish which do not know what water is to the people who do not know their surroundings.

The effect of using the fishing parable is to teach on the importance of understanding basic things that are significant in the development of a person and success. This applies the argumentative strategy referred to as appeal to reason where the speaker aims at creating a line of reasoning to the audience. In this case, David Foster aims at driving the need of the college students and graduates into understanding their environment as a key factor to their success in life after school.

The new life that one begins after graduation requires real knowledge. According to David, in his speech, real knowledge is achieved through thinking (Farnam Street Media, 2019). When one acquires real knowledge, they achieve the liberal meaning of education. One can learn and pass very well and afterward graduate. However, the life that they live will be guided and governed by the choices that they make. Most of the choices made are influenced by real knowledge. That incorporates knowing the right situations to use the knowledge one has. When a person uses the knowledge, they have in the wrong situation; it doesn’t help; thus, it turns out to be useless. That brings the significant concept of thinking to light.

Thinking is an important concept that is guided by choice. Most people assume that thinking is involved in everything that they decide. Additionally, when students graduate, they assume that they can think correctly. Thinking correctly is learned through a process. It incorporates making the right choices in a person’s life. When a graduate is asked to be taught how to think, they may feel offended. However, the bitter truth is that more often than not, not graduates do not know the art of thinking. Just because a person is smart enough to be admitted to college, it does not indicate that they have mastered the art of thinking. After all, colleges and other educational institutions test memory more than they test intelligence. When students take exams, the aspect being tested is their memory but not their level of intelligence. That indicates that most students who pass are not very intelligent but have a bigger memory capacity. That way, they can remember many things taught in class and answer them in the examinations.

Humans are emotional beings, and thus they take most of the situations emotionally. More often than not, emotions hinder the thinking process. For instance, David, in his speech “This Is Water.” gives an example of an adult's daily life. Most graduates end up working white-collar jobs that are very demanding and have to go to work daily. That shows that they are exhausted most of the days, and they only look forward to resting as they await the next day to go to work. Such a person sees all the things that happen, such as traffic congestion, long queues in the supermarket, and conveniences to their lives (Farnam Street Media, 2019). That is because they delay their plans for reaching home and resting. Such a person does not think but conforms to the world's common thoughts and social constructions. That ends up making them sad, bored, and bothered by most of the situations that occur.

Thinking liberates a person from the common thoughts and social constructions of the world. Through thinking, one can have a better, happy, and fulfilled life. For instance, all the people are looking up to go home and rest when in traffic congestion. One may take much time to meditate over their life, think their plans, or day through. That will eradicate the chance of a person feeling bothered, bored, and sad. It creates positive energy in a person. In this case, a person has chosen what to think about and not fostering the common thoughts of most people. That indicates that such a person has learned the art of thinking. Learning the art of thinking, therefore, entails choosing what to think about after exploring the available options. One has the autonomy of choosing what is best for them and other people. When a person learns the art of choosing what to think about from the available option, then they have achieved the true value of education.

In a nutshell, education's real value is achieved when a person learns and chooses how to think. As indicated in David’s speech, thinking is an art that is learned over time and involves choice. Thinking involves portraying real knowledge by knowing the right situation to apply the knowledge that one has learned. It is a very important concept that students should strive to accomplish. Therefore, asking a person to teach them how to think is right, although it may sound offensive. Thinking involves making choices about how a person perceives a situation and reflecting on all the situations' positive outcomes. David gives the speech to the graduates of Kenyon College so that they may choose by learning how to think and not becoming comfortable with the education that they have acquired from college.