David Foster Wallace and George Saunders both admit that people have a natural inclination toward selfishness and it is important that they change their understanding on what it means to fully live. David Foster Wallace begins with a joke about a fish not understanding what water is. in his speech “This is Water”, given in his commencement address delivered at Kenyon College. He immediately reassures the audience that he is not presenting himself as the ”wise old fish” explaining what water is Instead, he clarifies that the point of this joke is that often, the most obvious, important realities are the ones hardest to see, and talk about. He admits that in adult life, the dayeto— day trenches of life and banal platitudes can have life or death importance. He states that we all have a default setting in our personalities that makes us believe that we are the center of the universe and that all that happens in our lives happens to annoy or bother us.
We tend to believe that we are the only ones dealing with difficult times. In every experience we have, we make ourselves the center of it. For example, after finishing a tough day at work while in the “real world”, you have to go to the crowded supermarket to buy groceries with all the other stressed and frustrated customers. While at the store, you notice a young ADHD child and try to get past him. You feel that this child was put here to bother you. Instead, you should realize that other people probably have things they are dealing with, much more important than yours; like a dying family member. Wallace states that it is important to break through one’s default setting. It is important to control how and what you think, in order to avoid miserable. frustrating life.
He encourages his audience to choose to look at the world differently and to turn concern outwards to others. He explains that none of this is about religion or morality. It is about living before death. It is about getting through life without wanting to kill yourself. It is about being aware of what around us and reminding ourselves that “this is water”. This is unimaginably hard to do, stay alive day in and day out. David Wallace’s day to day life experiences to prove his point that life can be treacherous at times. He makes his point about how to live by using a depressing tone. He says that life is miserable and it is essential that we just make it through without killing ourselves doesn’t leave much hope for the newly graduated college students about to enter the “real world”. He doesn’t make life seem worth living. He implies that if people don’t focus most of their concern outwards, they will live horrible lives.
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This may shock some people in the audience because they may have never turned their concern outwards and now are being warned to change the way they live. The most important quality to Wallace is unselfishness. George Saunders has a slightly different perspective. In his “Advice to the Graduates”, Saunders uses humor from his own life experiences to explain his failures of kindness. He regrets not being kinder to an outcast classmate when he had a chance, He encourages the graduates to try to be kinder. He admits that people are born with “built in confusions”. Like Wallace, he says that we believe that we are central to the universe, that we are separate from the universe, and that we are permanent. These ideas cause us to prioritize our own needs over the needs of others, even though what we really want, in our hearts, is to be less selfish and more aware of what’s actually happening in the present moment.
He admits that some of this “becoming kinder” happens naturally with age. When we get older, we start to realize that it is useless to be selfish. As we grow, concern for ourselves diminishes, and we will grow in love. Ultimately, Saunders tells his audience to speed up the process of becoming kinder. He encourages the graduates to follow their hearts and desire but err it in the direction of kindness. He says avoid the things that will make you trivial. He says the students have bright and shining souls which they should believe to exist, come to know better, nurture, and share its fruits tirelessly. Unlike Wallace, George Saunders uses his own life experiences to show that kindness is key. He uses an optimistic tone in his speech the graduates and proves his point fairly quickly. Saunders tells his audience that eventually they will all come to kindness and live their life fully leaning towards kindness. He encourages the audience to look deep inside themselves to see how they want to treat others.
He compliments everyone by saying they have bright souls and something to share with the world. He encourages his audience to believe and nurture. He believes we are all part of something special and even though we will all attain kindness later in our lives, we should start now. He uplifts the audience and proves to them that they are capable of so much kindness and they accept how they truly feel. He leaves the audience of graduating college students with an optimistic mindset that they can accomplish all of their aspirations while still satisfying their desire to be kind. Saunders and Wallace share a basic idea in their speeches: that humans were born with “built in confusions” according to Saunders and “a default setting” that allow us to believe we are the center of the universe. Also they both present the idea that we must break through these barriers to become kinder and less selfish. Both Wallace and Saunders admit that humans have a natural inclination towards selfishness.
However, Saunders presents this journey of destroying our built in confusion in an appealing manner. He reassures his audience that they can be kind. There is kindness deep down inside everyone and if people look in their shining souls deep enough, they can spread the kindness we all long to share. He makes becoming kind, seem like something that we are all good enough to do. However, David Foster Wallace’s ”This is Water” proves to his audience that the everyday simple acts of unselfishness are hard to do. He makes the audience feel weary of their future and admits it is hard to live in an unselfish way and to break through default settings. Wallace takes along time reaching his point, while Saunders’ presents a brief and concise speech on what he believes it means to live. George Saunders and David Wallace present interesting points of view on life as shown through their descriptive speeches at two different commencement ceremonies.
However, their views can be very controversial. Most people nowadays are too scared to be kind in fear of being judged as strange. Instead, we look down at our phones and avoid eye contact with strangers. We are missing so much when we do this. The point of living is to meet new people and share our experiences with each other in hopes of making connections with people. Being kind is something most people naturally, deep down feel inclined to do. The pressure of society causes some people to remain introverted their entire lives. We need to end societal norms of ignoring each other and interact with strangers on a regular basis. In addition, we live in a society where one is labeled as “conceited” when one wants to make him or herself look and feel good. This does not mean she doesn’t care about anyone else. We should all put ourselves first and take care of ourselves before worrying about others.
This may seem selfish but ultimately the outcomes will be better. We should be kind and accepting towards others and find a good balance of self—love and apathy. IN addition, people should use their talents and gifts to teach and uplift others instead of making them feel jealous or hate. To do so we need to find inner self confidence and acceptance before we can outwardly show love to others. We are all just humans. We need to love each other but first we need to love ourselves. Ultimately, life is not about “making it through” according to Wallace, but finding ourselves and a balance between loving ourselves and loving others. Due to societal pressures, this can be hard. However if we believe that we have a “shining soul” according to Saunders, we can discover our true calling and live life the right way.
