"This is Water", this essay was written by David Foster Wallace, only to be delivered as a speech to the university graduates of Kenyon University. The speech covered and conveyed a significant aspect in life that the majority of people don't notice. It managed to portray freedom as being so important and easily configured. The purpose of the speech is to implement a simple yet primary lens, which life should be seen through. The moral of the phenomenal speech is to is to not consider the questions about the life after death, as a person must self adjust oneself to be aware consciously live the life before death.
The thesis has been developed primarily using solid, focused and easily relatable real life examples. Wallace starts off the speech by introducing the story of the three fish, which is considered to be unclear and has no specific value at the very beginning to the audience. Throughout his speech, he introduces phenomenas and questionable statements and events, yet he keeps on stressing on the fact that he does not know the answers himself, which creates a connection between him and the mis-lead audience, being both unaware and able to come up with answers that suits both parties individually.
The speech aims to clarify the idea that most people are unaware of, or unconscious enough to further appreciate its existence. The idea is that normal people who are set to their "default settings" are unable to see and understand the most obvious and important realities that by which they are surrounded, hence the story of the fish and their questionable inquiry of "what the hell is water". Wallace uses water to symbolize the realities that we are surrounded with, since we are certain that water means life for fish, yet however the fish are unaware of what water is due to the unconsciousness and uncertainty. This allows Wallace to create the basis of his argument, which not only can be used when relating to fish, but also when talking about everyday events of us human beings.
"How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?" this inquiry question has been further clarified after reading the essay by David Foster. In the essay, he uses relatable events in order to attracts us as audience and create a sympathetic connection with us. This allowed him to take advantage and introduce his theory more smoothly, since us audience will not question the reliability of the theory, as we will mostly only think of how much we can relate to such events and everyday life.
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