This is Water - David Foster Wallace

Task:
In his essay 'This is Water' David Foster Wallace suggests that true freedom acquired through education is the ability to be adjusted, conscious, and sympathetic. 

• How does he develop this thesis? What examples or evidence does he use? How does this theory extend or relate to our inquiry question? -How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?

In his piece of writing,  'This is Water', Wallace introduces his essay with the idea of fish questioning:  "What the hell is water?", in order to provide creative stimuli for the readers. Wallace wants his readers to register the supposed simplicity that lies within the question ; how absurd it sounds once said out loud. More importantly he strived for readers to question what has brought us to this state of devaluing extremely relevant questions on the major components of our everyday life. His aim , however, is to raise consciousness on the actual complexity and depth within the concept of something as common as water. Using this rather simple example, he hints towards the bigger picture ; our lives. 

Wallace emphasises that his essay doesn't concern itself with the questioning of what comes after death, rather what happens before. He develops his thesis of "true freedom acquired through education is the ability to be adjusted, conscious, and sympathetic." in various ways. Pointing out that he's not the "wise old fish" which stands for someone who is an expert in their profession and more or less provides all the answers ; Wallace takes away that responsibility and the expectations the audience would have as they read his essay. He merely suggests his ideas and interpretations on how we could live our lives differently. Here, Wallace questions the validity of what people have to be doing by the age of 30 to 50 and how it leads us to interact differently with our environment. By being adjusted, Wallace means to say that one can mentally adjust themselves to any particular situation and chose to approach it with a different mind set. An example would be the mentioned one of being in the super market , starved and exhausted after a long hard day at work. Normally the individual would easily be irritated and start forming negative thoughts towards everyone and everything around them, shunning some for being loud and others for choosing to be in traffic at the same time. Here, Wallace explores one of the most common experiences that an adult may go through in their working career ; he challenges the concept of thinking negatively without questioning its origin. Perhaps every one around you could be just as annoyed by you and everyone or every thing else. People chose to let out their steam caused by self pity by producing even more negative thoughts towards everyone, without giving them any credit and possibly thinking of a valid reason as to why they behave as such. To try and become more aware of the people and their personal struggles around us, is to become more conscious and thus ; sympathetic in the sense that we begin to feel for those people and come up with reasonable circumstances that have lead them to the same location or situation as us.

The whole idea/purpose of the essay is to inflict within the readers a new way of thinking. It doesn't force, threaten or try to factually bombard us. It merely opens up into Wallace's creative mind, widening our understanding of the world and its possibilities.The readers are brought in touch with an uncommon but more the brilliant way of viewing ourselves and everything around us.  His essay answers the inquiry question by enabling readers to develop emotional intelligence ; read people's emotions and interpret them positively. To adopt a more critical way of thinking and perhaps question many other concepts. Lastly, Wallace's essay brings attention to our ability to take control of our emotions in a variety of situations that we can not control or avoid. He suggests that it is better to manipulate ones own thoughts through adjustment and consciousness to make the best of every situation.