David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water”, a text that encourages people to become more aware of their surroundings, despite the fact that many may feel like they are the center of everything. Wallace makes a strong argument about how people can choose to view life in a different way than they do by default. The world should be seen from both the other person’s and the individual’s perspective.
Wallace’s primary rhetorical tool is emotion words. Wallace’s emotional words are felt in his grocery walk where he compares people to their default setting. As stated in paragraph 9, the checkout lines are incredibly long because there aren’t many checkout lanes that are open, even though the day is ending. Wallace is trying to show how quickly a person can lose their mind and ruin the rest of their day. In the checkout line, he also says: “And see how disgusting most of them look and how stupid they are. They seem like cows with dead eyes and no humanity.” It is because of this detail that many people are selfish. Wallace continues throughout the entire text to prove that humans do not always have the right perspective. Wallace showed how people could change their viewpoint by using logical reasoning. The text states, “If I chose to believe this, that’s fine. Many of us think like this. However, this choice is automatic, so it does not have to come from a conscious decision.” Wallace wants people to see the other person as a reasonable individual, rather than being a closed-minded individual. Wallace also says, “you can consciously choose what is meaningful and what is not.” You can choose what you worship …”. Wallace also wants to let people know that they have two paths and can choose which one they want to follow.
David Foster Wallace is a strong writer because he can use pathos and ethos to influence people’s judgement. He challenges the reader to be critical by allowing them to see the other side of every situation.
