Rhetorical Analysis Of David Foster Wallace's Real Freedom

Worship Begins and Ends with Meth

The world today is filled with a variety of challenges. Inevitably we confront conflicts and contrariety and approach them with little to none awareness. In David Foster Wallace’s speech “Real Freedom,” he explains that a majority of today’s society are not “properly educated” to think. Wallace’s primary point of his speech is to question what people worship, whether it be an object, a characteristic or someone and what ones “default setting” might be. He does not want his audience to state what religion they worship but rather something or someone that helps define that individual person and their life. A perfect example to Wallace’s ‘worship’ theme and “default setting” theory is the protagonist, Walter

White, from the show Breaking Bad. Walter White is a chemistry teacher turned crystal-methamphetamine cook, who has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Being a high school chemistry teacher, he has no feasible way to afford the cancer treatments offered to him. So what does he do? The logical thing of course: cooking methamphetamine. What starts out as just a side hobby, ends up becoming a lifestyle for Walter White; shaping his entire personality. The business White creates starts off shaky due to the hardships of acquiring the equipment and ingredients needed, however, as time passes by, Walter White learns the “do’s and don’ts” of the business operation and before you know it, he has a multi-million dollar drug scheme. By examining Walter White’s persona through the lens of Wallace’s “worship” and “default setting” theory, we are able to see why it strengthens Wallace’s rhetorical argument of why it

is essential to have simple, everyday awareness.
Being a writer and an English professor, David Foster Wallace is able to form a strong connection with each and every reader of his speech. However, that is not the only reason why the audience is captivated in this excellent speech. The speech is written to empower the readers and to show them obvious issues that are overlooked and passed by everyday. The issues that Wallace addresses in his speech are self-centeredness and egotism. Throughout his commencement speech, Wallace incorporates short anecdotes and two theories to describe the issue of egotism and unawareness: the “worship” and “default setting.” These theories help to explain that everyone in this world worships something. Some people have compelling interests in choosing to worship “some sort of god or spiritual-type thing” because “pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive” (Wallace). What Wallace is stating is that anything one worships, which is not in the spiritual/religious sense, will become one of their main unconscious focuses in life.
Supporting Wallace’s argument that “there is no such thing as not worshipping,” (Wallace), is Breaking Bad’s protagonist, Walter White.

Picture a middle-aged man who has a loving family, are extremely happy, and financially stable. Now picture a middle-aged man who has lung cancer, has been disowned by his family, fired from his job, has several murders under his belt, and facilitates a multi-million dollar illegal drug operation. This man is Walter White. And all the good changed for the worst with the news of him getting lung cancer. Soon after this news, his “cancer became not only the impetus for [his] transformation, but perhaps a metaphor for what Walt himself becomes as he greedily consumes and destroys anything that stands in the way of his growth, influence, and power” (Kitson). Walter White began operating a business with a step-by-step procedure that slowly slipped into his unconsciousness. And once that had happened, his family and social life slipped away from him. Walter White worshiped his meth industry he built up, the money, and the power and control he had. For example in Walter White strengthens Wallace’s claim that “if you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough” (Wallace). White accurately supports Wallace’s claim because throughout the last two season of the show, White had an unending hunger for a steady cash flow and superiority over other drug

lords. For example, in season 4, he assassinated the head drug lord in his area to gain control of all the drug trafficking and distribution in that area. “No matter how much Walt made, he wanted more -- until the bitter end, when ego was all that mattered” (Shane). Walter had become so engulfed in his worship of power and money, that he was unaware of the deleterious effects of his behavior. Although repeatedly explaining to his family that he was doing it to benefit them, they had no support in it. Instead of the abundance of money, White’s family wanted love and that was something Walter failed to keep “the truth up front in daily consciousness” (Wallace). Walter White was not aware of the consequences till midway through season five of the show when it was already to late to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. Walter attempted to buy his family’s and friend’s compassion back, however those closest to him [could] no longer stomach his insincere claims to love them so much [that he kept] putting them in danger and implicating them in his crimes by plying them with drug money” (Shane). As Walter White soon discovered after losing his family to money, “the real world [did] not discourage [him from worshipping], because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self” (Wallace).
The second theory Walter White hits the nail on is default setting. With many jobs today, such as fast food and car production, they appear to involve a repetitive process of going about things. Walter White’s meth-making process is no different. His process begins with setting up the laboratory, laying out all the ingredients, ‘cooking’ the meth and lastly, distributing the final product. On a daily basis, he repeats this process over and over again until he runs out of ingredients to create methamphetamine. Wallace says that “default setting” is “the kind of worship [where] you gradually slip into day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that’s what you’re doing” (Wallace). Walter White’s character definitely strengthens Wallace’s explanation on “default setting,” because White was consumed in cooking meth and has always had a keen eye for perfection.
We live in a world today where many of us think we are the center of attention. Most often we are applauded for our achievements, appreciated if we excel and told that the world is abundant with limitless opportunities. However, too much praise can cause us to become “obsessed” with this feeling of satisfaction and lose sight on life’s overall big picture. Unfortunately, Walter White fell victim to Wallace’s theory of worship and “default setting.” Putting his meth industry as his main and only priority, White was unable to appreciate the big picture in life: his loving family, friends and school staff. It was all about him; enclosed in a soundproofed bubble and oblivious to the impact his self-centeredness had on the people he loved and admired. In the end, Walter White lost everything he loved, even his illegal business scheme. Walter White strengthens David Foster Wallace’s rhetorical argument about his theory of worship and “default setting” because White kept his ego inflated; he put his priorities first and gained the mentality that the world revolved around him. In strengthening Wallace’s point, it is safe to discern that Wallace wants people to free themselves from their self-centered ego and their desire to continually pride themselves into thinking how special they are. “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day” (Wallace 32).