Order Number |
3546893092 |
Type of Project |
ESSAY |
Writer Level |
PHD VERIFIED |
Format |
APA |
Academic Sources |
10 |
Page Count |
3-12 PAGES |
Essay: This is Water by David Foster Wallace
Writing Analysis Draft
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.
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.
The art of thinking involves not conforming to the norms of society. 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.
Reference:
Farnam Street Media. (2019, October 22). This is water by David Foster Wallace (Full transcript and audio). Farnam Street.
https://web.archive.org/web/20201019184112/https://fs.blog/2012/04/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/