Persuasive Essay On This Is Water

Commencement speeches are meant to be these happy and optimistic things that are supposed to motivate the listener, since they will be moving onto a new and important phase in their life. These speeches are not supposed to warn them about the horrors of freshman chemistry, or that their boss will have to lay them off because the company is suffering, or that when they realize their childhood is gone, they’ll want it back but will never be able to. “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace is a commencement speech that does exactly the opposite of all commencement speeches.

The speeches are not supposed to warn the listener, because for the occasion, the listener does not want to hear those things. They instead want to savor the moment, because

The American High-School system has flaws, the major one being that critical awareness is not heavily emphasized. The curriculum tends to focus on simply passing and moving onto the next course. The end goal of high-school is to move onto college. The end goal of college is to get a job. With the modern and technological 21st century, the careers are no longer focusing on someone who can pass a test and move on, they want someone who can think with this sort of critical awareness because the modern century demands it.

The goal of going to college is to be prepared enough for the outside world, to be “successful.” So far, all of the classes I have taken have forced me to view the world with this sort of critical awareness. This critical awareness helps free you from ignorance and prejudice because you are making your own opinions from the world presented to you, rather than making your opinions from the opinions and thoughts of others.

With this idea of critical awareness and critical thinking, Wallace’s speech makes a lot of good points about life and being able to enjoy life, despite the reality of it. His speech, while it is presented in this somber