1. In two healthy paragraphs, summarize the speech and show (with framed quotes and paraphrases from the text) what you believe to be the author’s three main points/arguments. Support with textual evidence and include your own initial response to the material.

Overall, this speech covered the topic of beliefs and how we choose to think throughout our daily lives.  David Foster starts his speech off with this illustration, “there are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says ‘morning, boys. How’s the water?’ and the two young fish swim on for a bit and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes ‘what the hell is water’ (Wallace 1). This is the basis of Wallace’s main argument that “the important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about,” which is his first main point (Wallace 1). He then goes on to give an example of an Atheist being saved by Eskimos after praying to God for help. The man continues to not believe God helped him, and Wallace uses this example to make the point that, as individuals, we are going to believe what we want to believe. We will make sense and reason with our experiences how we want to, which is his second main point. 

Furthermore, Wallace also goes into detail about shopping at a supermarket and driving on a highway. He uses this example to further build on his point about humans going through life “unconscious” . We only take the time in our own tiny minds to think about how experiences are affecting ourselves, not the supermarket cashier, or the man driving the SUV. We assume everything in the universe is revolving around us and only impacting us, making us feel tired or angry. This is Wallace’s final and biggest point of this commencement speech. He believes that the biggest choice and the main goal of education is to provide oneself with the freedom to escape from your “default setting” and become aware and disciplined, and care about other people boldly. 

2. Do you agree with DFW’s main arguments? Why or why not? Explain.

Yes, I one hundred percent agree with DFW’s main arguments, and I think it is a freeing and very eye-opening point. I can think of many examples in my life where I force and or believe things to have meaning or connection to God. I can think of times I’ve been that negative person, driving or in the grocery store. I think his speech provided a lot of eye-opening ideas on how we as individuals choose to go about our lives. 

3. Do you believe DFW is referring to empathy, even though he never uses the word? Or is he hinting at something else?

I do believe that DFW is hinting at empathy without saying it. I can see this in his car example about the father driving recklessly on the highway, and imagining what the reason he might be driving that way is. DFW calls to the reader to look outside our own tiny perception of the world and put ourselves in other people’s shoes and assume the best intent in others, and I believe that is what empathy is, and is a more accurate definition than Bloom’s. 

4. Find one DFW quote that evoked a strong response. Paste the direct quote from his piece, then write a few sentences in which you challenge or support his statement.

One quote from DFW that evoked a strong response from me was when he gave the example of the atheist and religious men in Alaska, and DFW said, “the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people, given those people’s two different belief templates and two different ways of constructing meaning from experience” (Wallace 2). This quote really stuck with me because I thoroughly agree with it. There have been multiple times I have experienced hardships and believed it’s all in God’s plan for me. Or times where I’m experiencing a lot of good things and feel like God is with me. This is because of my own personal experience and how I construct meaning in the things that happen to me. My roommates or friends might not see a Blue Heron flying by and think it’s a sign from God to be resilient, but I do, because that is what my mom and I always say, that is how our belief templates work. 

5. How do DFW’s main points interact with those of Paul Bloom (from our last reading)?

I think DFW’s main points are a lot more connected to empathy as a whole. I still believe that Paul Bloom was trying to hint at something bigger, such as a bigger societal issue or injustice rather than how to express empathy to others.