Rhetorical Analysis Of David Foster Wallace's This Is Water

Words: 306
Pages: 2

This is AP Language, not chemistry, my classmates and I thought, eight months ago. My Naugy High classmates and I exchanged confused looks upon noticing a video thumbnail projected on the board titled “This is Water.” What would our unconventional teacher possibly show us? Nobody could have predicted the profound effect that short video would have. In this ten minute clip, David Foster Wallace speaks to a graduating class about the value of a real education and life ahead. Without lingering on formalities, Wallace asserts that adulthood is a Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday rinse-and-repeat for decades. This tedious monotony is inevitable. Foster offers insight into human nature—that is, the default setting of people