My Analysis on "This Is Water"

     In my personal opinion, David Foster Wallace’s This is Water is the most relatable and overall useful piece we have read so far in class. The general concept Wallace spends about five pages explaining is how to look at the larger picture and not always imagine the world revolves around yourself. He mentions how we are all inherently self-centered and it is only natural human tendency to think about how others impact our lives specifically rather than thinking about how society runs as a whole and the different situations others may be in. “Basic self-centeredness… It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth” (Wallace 233). This idea in itself is not new, as even one of the most fundamental principles of economics is that all of mankind will act selfishly, but the way it is examined throughout the piece causes the audience to ponder over what they just read and recognize its truthfulness.

     Later in the piece, he claims how true freedom is control and this may sound paradoxical, but it makes complete sense. Without control, and just freedom, one continuously feels a hunger for more, and regardless of the context, they will never achieve it. This reminds me of a quote from the movie, Schindler’s List when Oskar Schindler says to Amon Goeth, “power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don’t.” This uses the similar ideology of controlling oneself to prevent their inevitable collapse if left with a mindset of unrestrained freedom.