Article Review:This is Water
“This is Water” by David Wallace is a speech that was given by Wallace during a graduation ceremony at Kenyon College in Gambier. The author uses emotional appeals and logical appeals to highlight the importance of thinking critically. In the speech “This is Water,” David uses the term “conscious” to refer to the people who think critically, and he uses the term “unconscious” to refer to the people who do not apply critical thinking while making their decisions. In the analysis between critical thinkers and uncritical thinkers, Wallace ignores possible ethical arguments that contribute to the societies where members think critically. “This is Water” is a commencement speech by Wallace that is concerned about how critical thinking affects day to day activities of individuals.
The commencement speech “This is Water” by David Wallace starts with a story of two young fish that comes across to an older fish. The story of the fish is used by the author to illustrate the importance of critical thinking in daily activities. The older fish nods at the two young fish, and says to them “Morning boys, how’s the water?” The older fish is wiser and can be viewed as wise individuals in society who critically evaluates their thoughts before action. The older fish has critically thought on the question to the young fish, and the aim of the question is to create a peaceful existence in water. The two young fish do not respond to the older fish, and they continue swimming. One young fish looks at the other younger fish and asks “What the hell is Water” (Wallace, 2009). The two young fish can be viewed as individuals in society who do not critically think, and they lack understanding about their daily activities. The two young fish cannot provide an answer to the older fish because they do not think critically. David Wallace employed the use of the story about the two young fish and the older wise fish in his commencement speech introduction to attract the attention of his audience. The short story about the two young fish and the old fish may seem to be very simple, but in reality, the story is philosophical and has deeper meaning where various lessons about the importance of critical thinking in our daily activities can be extracted.
Failure to apply critical thinking in day to day activities causes frustrations and boredom. “That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense. So, let’s get concrete. The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what “day in, day out” really means. There happens to be whole large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine, and pretty frustration. The parents and the older folks here will know all too well what I’m talking about” (Wallace, 2009). Wallace uses this paragraph in his speech to drive his idea that most graduates lack enough idea on how to apply critical thinking in their daily activities after graduating. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of critical thinking among the graduates, which is the main aim of the speech.
In summary, “This is Water” by David Wallace is a commencement graduation speech. The author of the speech uses emotional and logical appeals to emphasize on the importance of critical thinking among the graduates. The term “conscious” is frequently used in the speech to refer to the people who think critically, while the term “unconscious” is used to refer to the people who do not apply critical thinking in their daily activities. The story of the fish is used in the speech to highlight how failure to think critically adversely affects daily activities. The author uses descriptions to describe the importance of critical thinking in life after graduation.