Compare And Contrast Wallace And Annie Dillard

Irving Wallace, an American author and screenwriter, once stated: “To be one’s self, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity.” Wallace admired those who were not afraid to be the “lone wolf” and stick to their own individual ideas and character, no matter the consequences. People often view submission as the one and only route; they see a majority of the population following one another and figure it is the best option. Unfortunately, conformity does have its consequences. In The Crucible, Miller reveals that the overwhelming pressures to conform causes one’s rationality to be diminished, resulting in the destruction of their morals and ultimately a society through his use of situational and dramatic irony.

Charles Wallace thought he would be able to control it, but he let his pride get the best of him. Despite being so intelligent and bright, he still has flaws but more importantly courage.

It is easy to judge individuals based on our crooked misconceptions. Sight is a useless physiological sense if one is unable to view/perceive things on a deep, meaningful level. Due to this, individuals tend to allow other relationships to trigger personal insecurities within. One must be capable to share a vision with others to achieve enlightenment and self-awareness. In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the author utilizes various rhetorical devices to convey the importance of perception and sight.

Wallace is trying to say that he isn’t the person who is telling them what they have to do in their life, and that the persons themselves are who is supposed to make their own life how they want it to be. I think he avoids telling them what to do because he only gave examples of how a routine life can be like and for them to be conscious of the life they are in.

Many people tend to become frustrated with their daily lives and start to have a negative mindset of blaming other people for their problems. In David Foster Wallace’s speech, “This is Water,” he informed the audience of the importance for everyone to know they have a “natural default-setting,” which is the automatic way that a person feels they are the center of the universe and that negative situations are other people’s fault. He also discussed the importance of trying not to act in this “natural default-setting”, and try to think of problems that other people have to go through in their lives. The main purpose of Wallace’s speech was to persuade the audience to fight the urge of staying in their natural default setting to prevent frustration in a person’s daily life.

David Foster Wallace wants the reader to realize that the most important and the most obvious realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about. Seeing what’s right in front of you can be the most difficult thing because you are always looking further and not opening your eyes to see the most obvious parts of life. Wallace is additionally trying to get the reader to tap into the real meaning of life as well as trying to move people away from their “default setting”. The opening of this speech starts out with the story of wise fish and the two young fish. After being asked about the water by the older fish, the two younger fish realize that they don’t know what water is. Fish don’t know water exists until beached;

Then Wallace gives us a simple solution. Wallace's ideas and what he's asking his audience to do is that people need to make an effort to think what they think about therefore, by reprograming what we think about, we alter our mindful blind state to being aware and mindful. However, Wallace asserts, in order to rid the mind of those negative thoughts that drive us crazy he suggests, that we adjust our thinking to believe that perhaps these people are worse off than we are. Because we know nothing about them or what is going on in their lives. Therefore, by becoming aware we are able to shift our auto pilots from being mindless to mindful. This is in fact what Wallace is claiming in his speech, we are no longer in the state of what was previously blind to us rather we are able to see the world around us, we are compassionate individuals who care about the once faceless individuals that normally irritate us and cause such agony in our

A Rhetorical Analysis On Wallace’s “This is Water” In the speech titled, “This is Water,” David Foster Wallace gives a commencement speech to the Liberal Arts graduating class of Kenyon College. He introduces a common cliche that serves as the foundation of his speech. He asserts that a liberal arts education is not about being filled with knowledge, but rather, recognizing the value in having the advantage of being taught how to think and the necessity of this phenomenon in coming adulthood. Wallace effectively convinces his audience that the true benefit of education is being taught how to consciously choose what to think about.

1) According to Dillard, lovers and the knowledgeable can see well. Yet she also suggests that those who are knowledgeable on a topic, such as people who have been blind from birth and can suddenly see (due to an opperation), can perhaps view more objectively the world around them, and see it in a way that those with vision from birth cannot. Infants, she says, can see very clearly, for they are viewing the world for the first time, and can observe the colors and the light with no prejudgments, but we forget this experience as we grow older, and only occasionally catch glimpses of this phenomenon.

Wallace exhibited different psychotic behaviors throughout his writing. For instance his senior year of high school he was convinced he had a huge gaping open wound on his face and split face with blood seeping out. Wallace became paranoid because he thought others were staring at his perceived facial wound and they was a monster. "They'd seem to stare at me real· Iy funny, and I'd think "Oh God. I'm really making them sick, they see it. I've got to hide, get me out of here"( pg 26). Although his parents and doctors tried re-orient him to reality that his face was intact. Wallace was adamant that he had facial wound that he tried to sew up wound but ended up damaging his facial nerve.

The last and final reasoning the ultimately leads to the fall of Wallace, is him being

Wallace experiences quite a few virtues throughout the movie but humility and courage seem to stand out the most. He is shown humility when he is tied up and about to be killed. Almost the entire movie is a showcase for Wallace’s courage as he rarely shows fear. He does not back down and will

Wallace says, “Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. 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. It is our default-setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: There is no experience you've had that you were not at the absolute center of.” (Wallace 2)

Wallace, “the center of the universe,” is where rich history and breathtaking beauty meet. Engulfed by the Bitterroot

Wallace is your average potato. He eats like a potato, moves like a potato, and even thinks like a potato. But, even though his life may seem glamerous to an outsider that’s not how it is in the slightest. Wallace has been goin through some physical changes recently. This includes puberty, growing from the increased amounts of water, and even at times rolling down the hill and getting dirty. As you can see he doesn’t have the best potato life.