Rhetorical Analysis Of This Is Water By David Foster Wallace

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Life is a struggle; it is a pain. Waking up to the sound of an annoying alarm clock beeping every second and waking up to an endless routine of nothing is what happens when we use our natural default-setting. This occurs when our brains turn off by the engagement of all activity. A natural default-setting is when we, ourselves, turn off completely, when we no longer care or are aware of anything. As perceived by David Foster Wallace in his “This is Water” speech, our natural default-setting is when we believe the world revolves around us. Throughout his entire speech, Wallace poses many interesting rhetorical strategies that contribute to his overall message: the effect of our natural default-setting. Thus, through Wallace’s use of logos, examples, and opinions, he effectively convinces the audience that we can change our mentality and our natural default setting. …show more content…
Wallace uses parallelism to construct a cause and effect relationship: “We rarely talk about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness, because it's so socially repulsive, but it's pretty much the same for all of us, deep down [our default-setting].” In other words, if we continue to only worry about ourselves, our close-mindedness will lead to our natural default-setting. When speaking about mindfulness, Wallace’s message is persuasive because he explains how the natural default-setting works. In order to control our mentality, we must understand what causes our natural default setting, which Wallace explicitly explains: “…if I don’t make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I’m going to be pissed and miserable every time… because my natural-default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really about me…” Therefore, logos allow the audience to understand why they succumb to their natural
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