When first reading the late David Foster Wallace's commencement speech to the graduating class of 2005 at Kenyon College one is left to wonder why he is dumping such heavy subject matter on to a young audience who has yet to experience its weight. However, towards the end it becomes apparent that it is less of a harsh warning and more of a lesson intended to educate these students one last time in a way that will stick with them far after they have forgotten the quadratic formula. That lesson being, be compassionate. Though the subject appears easy to grasp it gets heavily convoluted with our inherent selfishness and ignorance. In his speech "This is Water" Wallace addresses the issue of the ignorance and selfishness of man getting in the …show more content…
way compassion through clever anecdotes and satrical speech. Despite being stuck on auto pilot driven by ignorance we can simply change by exercising our own free will. Selfishness unfortunately is inherently apart of us.
We selfishly think on a daily basis what happens in the world that is around us. The selfish word in there is "around" because it shows that, even though subconsciously, we believe that instead of moving with the world it is moving around us. Since the dawn of man we have always tended to put ourselves at the center of the universe. This is why people can blow off the feelings of others simply because they value their own issues above others. Wallace explains this through an anecdote in a grocery store where a man is shopping after work. The man is so entranced in his own less than ecstatic thoughts that he disregards everyone around him. In fact, Wallace explains that the man silently judges and hates the other people in the grocery store for being in his way. When brought to light it sounds horrible that a person can make such callous remarks without even so much as speaking to the other people. However, it is common for this to happen on a daily basis and for some even 24/7. Wallace says in his speech “if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options” (Wallace 207). Despite the irony in this quote its meaning still rains true despite its author not being able to follow it. He explains in a simple sentence a major err that most of us commit; we go through life with blinders only seeing our path. These blinders keep us from noticing the world around us and stop us from being able to …show more content…
feel empathy for others since we cannot view their paths as well. Free will is here so we can have freedom in chose to live how we please. Though this is common knowledge it is highly common to see people push freedom on the backburner as they fall into routine and switch on autopilot. Wallace perfectly demonstrates this by stating, “the really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.” True freedom is not only paying attention to ones needs but paying attention to others and acting in a non selfish manner. This point reminds me of a short story called "String Theory." (Tesla, Creepypasta) In the story a boy one day notices strings laid out in his room, confused he goes about his day normally noticing strings everywhere connected to everything around him. He has a sudden realization after watching a women get a sandwich that was tied to her by a string that these strings are attached to people and that the people are attached to the objects they are using which meant that all of their actions are predetermined by these strings. Though there are no strings in This is Water the same concept applies. The mass of us get stuck in the monotony of life to the point where our free will is taken lightly and almost cast aside. And that, that is no way to live. Ignorance is not bliss. Wallace addresses that living in ignorance is not only detrimental to one's self but to the others around them. In the first few lines of his speech Wallace demonstrates our ignorance to the world around us through fish, " There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how's the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?” (Wallace,1) He comically uses these fish to show an everyday thing that we all do.
The line "what the hell is water" essentially is the fishes version of a person saying "what the hell is air". This line portrays the surprisingly common ignorance to the world around us despite it being right in front of us the entire time. We spend so long swimming in water that we go on auto pilot and forget what it is we are swimming in. Later in his speech Wallace states how we need to rid ourselves of our "default setting" that is on every waking moment of our lives. He proceeds to explain that we must imagine ourselves as that person and put ourselves into their shoes, feel what they feel, see what they see. Simply by letting ourselves understand a stranger on a deeper allows us to be compassionate and shed some of the weight of the ignorance we carry around. We have to be willing to sacrifice ourselves in some moments and allow others to be lifted up or else we will always remain in a bubble blocking out the rest of the
world. The beauty of free will is that it allows us to be, well us. However it is very easy to fall into routine because of it, which in turn blocks us from feeling compassion for other humans. Wallace illustrates with "This is Water" that it is up to us to break out of the routine dreary lives we construct around us and think of the world as moving with us instead of it moving around us. His words ring with realization that true happiness in society is not always putting ones needs first and allowing others to be lifted up even if one might be falling. Maybe in the end it was that reason alone why he ended his own life.
It is up to the people whether they want to be models who endeavor for more or disgraces that fail to try. In “A Model of Christian Charity” by John Winthrop and “Art of Virtue” by Benjamin Franklin, both authors acknowledge human flaws, but more importantly they also acknowledge the capability to strive for good for themselves or for
It is not that we are selfish, but that we only see the world from our own point of view. We only feel our own emotions, and not others. Language has been used a tool used to communicate emotions and thoughts to others, but that is not its true form. Faulkner illustrates the track of the human mind and the inadequacy of human language as communication, through the grief and interactions of Rider.
Everybody on earth faces some type of hardship at some point in their life. Regardless of religious preference most people seek guidance and find comfort through practicing their faith. This is exactly the case for Ruth McBride-Jordan, James McBride’s mother. In the novel The Color of Water, James sends the messages that a strong faith in God can overcome any obstacle and is the foundation for a happy, prosperous life through the story of his mother’s life.
With every articulated drop of knowledge and accentuated measure of experience, comes a vast crescendo of soundness and wisdom. Acquiring these necessities of life may take a person, or a nation, decades of determination and desire for change to develop. If not given enough time, however, the individual or nation might descend and linger in a stage of naivety—where knowledge is too scarce to truly understand and evaluate all the experiences they have gone through in the world. Our nation is, and has always been, a nation succumbing to the weakness of our naivety due to the critical lack of the incandescent wisdom and maturity it needed in order for peace to prevail. In J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the young character named Holden Caulfield displayed an image of naivety that shadowed the immature lifestyles of 1950’s America and served as a critique towards this nation for the lack of wisdom reflected in the course of our actions.
Humanity Exposed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. & nbsp; People are the picture of contrast, sometimes strong and heroic, and other times weak and lamentable. In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain illustrates both the good and the disagreeable portions of human nature. The good side of humanity is shown through his depiction of people's courage. The irrationality of mankind is exposed through the actions of characters in the novel. The unproductive self-serving attitude of many people is also shown in Huck Finn.
In today’s society, acts of compassion are rare as we get more and more focused on satisfying our desire for success and wealth. However, humans do sometimes show remarkable acts that melts the hearts of men and women and restore faith in humanity within those who are less optimistic. But it might not always be a kind return that you may get from such action. In the story “Sweat” by Barry Webster, a young girl named Sue allows Jimmy as an act of kindness to lick her “honey” on her body. As a result, Jimmy chokes from the honey and Sue gets more rejected from the other students at her school. By using characterization, dialogue and narration, Webster demonstrates the theme that compassion and kindness can bring more consequences than benefits when these actions are done by those who are different.
“Oh, it was a mistake.” People always say that and a large number of people don’t learn from their mistakes. Same mistakes keep happening even though the world keeps on saying I promise. People just let things happen because they are selfish and full of greed. There is a book called “Night”. This book shows the greed and selfishness which leads to a disaster that will hurt millions of people. The question is why is it important for young people today to read Night? The answer is we should learn the mistakes from the past and take it seriously and take actions not only by saying I will not do it again. We should succor the victim of oppression and tyranny by being on their side and do what is right. I believe repeating the past is the worst thing you can do.
“The Perils of Indifference” In April, 1945, Elie Wiesel was liberated from the Buchenwald concentration camp after struggling with hunger, beatings, losing his entire family, and narrowly escaping death himself. He at first remained silent about his experiences, because it was too hard to relive them. However, eventually he spoke up, knowing it was his duty not to let the world forget the tragedies resulting from their silence. He wrote Night, a memoir of his and his family’s experience, and began using his freedom to spread the word about what had happened and hopefully prevent it from happening again.
In Garrett Hardin’s “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against Helping the Poor, Hardin argues that you should not help the poor because there are limited resources and if the poor continue to seek help they will continue to overpopulate, disrespecting all of limits. Hardin supports his argument by using the lifeboat metaphor while trying to convince the rich not to lend a helping hand to the poor. In the lifeboat metaphor Garrett Hardin uses the upper class and the lower class people to give us a visual of how the lifeboat scenario actually works. Along with the lifeboat metaphor, Hardin uses the tragedy of commons, population growth, and the Joseph and Pharaoh biblical story to persuade the readers.When reading “Lifeboat Ethics: The Case against
We often hear the saying that water is the source of life so how can mankind waste this precious source that God has given us. A fine example was mentioned in the film about India’s new green agricultural system where 30 times more water is been use than the actual amount required. It is really hard to see how these farmers are spitefully wasting water when it is really needed in the neighboring communities. This goes to show that people only do things to benefit themselves not considering the needs of other people. Not only is water being wasted in developing countries but there is also water wastage in developed countries we often take our water sources for granted here in the US such as not turning off the pipes when brushing our teeth or washing our hands and the list goes on. Water conservation is the key to saving our planet because soon it will become extinct to us human beings.
...f their family (Jackson 867). In everyday life, we posses the same selfish attitude portrayed in the story. What is one of a child’s favorite words? It’s "mine!" We constantly say well "it’s better you than me" and "it’s every man for himself." It’s pretty scary _when you actually think about it, because you realize we really are that selfish.
It starts when Rainbow Fish, the most beautiful fish in the ocean is asked to share his shimmering scales, but he angrily denies them and turns all the fish reject him. All the other fish want nothing to do with him, nor do they want to befriend him. (As the story states) “From then on, no one would have anything to do with the Rainbow Fish. They turned away when he swam by” (Pfister 5). The author’s intention is to reveal to the audience how the other fish were not friends with Rainbow Fish due to his egocentric behavior. Rainbow fish was self-centered and believed to be better than all the other fish. He valued beauty, something that was of little value over his happiness. He then suffered consequences of those beliefs by being lonely.
In what society do we live in today, where a women can be raped and
Plot Summary: The author begins the story with introducing Norman Borlaug, a boy who dreams of feeding the poor. Norman develops special corn seeds and changes the world. But Norman is not the only one responsible for the great success. The author goes on to ask if it was Norman who saved the world, or three other boys: Henry Wallace, George Washington Carver and Moses Carver who play a key role in developing the seeds that ultimately help feed two billion people. In the end Andrews describes the “butterfly effect” and concludes that very little things that we do may have a great impact on somebody’s life.
Wallace reiterates what freedom truly is and the way it makes up a person’s daily life. This true freedom is achieved by “attention and awareness and discipline, and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over.” To Wallace, this is the only real way to be highly sophisticated in both a mental state and the determination to get you through day to day tasks. By looking at how other people live their life, it will open up a more colorful and lively world instead of living by the default-setting of daily routines. In the blue-collar world, especially a waitress at that, most job efficiency and payment is determined by how the costumer and co-workers are treated. Rose’s mother, being a waitress, always has to put a costumer first, “and so she became adept at reading social cues and managing feelings, both the costumers and her own.” Being able to understand the emotional states and psychological attitudes of other people is learned everyday by certain blue-collar workers to complete this bigger picture. Both author’s feel that in the everyday world , a person should have the attitude of understanding the feelings of another in order to have a fulfilled mental state throughout their day and working