A Supposedly Fun Thing I Ll Never Do Again Analysis

In his speech This is Water, David Foster Wallace utilizes anecdotes of the daily routines of the average adult that the newly graduate will now experience. Wallace asserts to the graduating class that the overall purpose of higher education is having the ability and freedom to mindfully choose how we perceive others and to appropriately adjust our way of thinking. Wallace believes that if we really take the time to consider what we think about and control our thoughts that the scripts that are embedded in our minds can be reprogrammed to reveal what has been blind to us. Wallace’s main idea is that adults are self-centered and they lack compassion for others simply, because our thought process is set on auto pilot. Wallace’s overall claim is that we all have a choice, which is the theme of his speech.

The universe doesn’t owe you, me, or anyone a thing, except for death. Though as kids most of us were led to believe that with enough effort and hard work were going to become whatever we wanted to be, we were going to have whatever our little hearts desired, and we were going to do whatever we wanted to do. However, as we grew up we realized that this is not the case. There are millions of people who did not become professional athletes, models, or billionaires, people who never got to have the mansions, cars, and fame that they always longed for, people who never got to travel the world, cure cancer, or fly into space. These are all mostly childlike dreams, which were probably imposed unto us by either our parents or society. There’s nothing wrong with children having these sort of improbable dreams, however, there comes a time where we can no longer be children. In the story Tandolfo the Great, written by Richard Bausch, we are introduced to Rodney Wilbury aka Tandolfo the Great, who is a suitable example to demonstrate what life can be like for those who are unable to grow out of their childlike mind sets. In this analysis I will be inspecting how Tandolfo the Great’s childish mind set, from his strong sense of entitlement to his inability to let go of the past events, has almost destroyed his life and how it can destroy anyone else’s.

When looking for things to do in our lifetimes, we tend to look at what other people do in order to take inspiration and do whatever they did for ourselves. However, there is a point where instead of naturally discovering what life has to offer for ourselves, we instead rely on how others experienced it and use that as a guide to shape our expectations for something. In Walker Percy’s writing “The Loss of the Creature”, he explores a concept he calls, “loss of sovereignty”. What he means by this term is that people will surrender free thoughts of their own and rely instead on what other people's brains think, then live off others thoughts instead of their own. To add explanation, people surrender their own thoughts and expectations, Percy says, “The consumer is content to receive an experience just as it has been presented to him by theorists and planners. The reader may also be content to judge life by whether it has or has not been formulated by those who know and write about life” (3). This shows that if the person experiencing something new in this world for the first time, they will fear that they would not know what to look out for. So they rely on others, especially the so-called “experts” to guide the road for them instead. The overall message Percy argues when it comes to Part I of “The Loss of the Creature” is that people will not let their own natural thoughts dictate what they personally think about experiencing something and instead, use others experiences to

Although he knew that his family could not afford a bike, he followed the advice of his substitute teacher and “prayed for one”, and continued life normally, without particularly looking for how this would be accomplished. Carrey then shares his later astonishment, saying, “two weeks later, I got home from school to find a brand-new mustang bike with a banana seat and easy rider handlebars” because a friend had entered Carrey’s name in a raffle without his knowledge. With this experience, Carrey gives an example of his own outlook on life—letting “the universe know what you want” and working towards goals while “letting go of how it might come to pass” has worked in his own life. Through sharing this positive experience, Carrey entices his audience to refuse choosing fear when things seem impossible, and instead choose hope and love.

During this essay written by Walker Percy, it is clear that his overall opinion of experiencing new things is in the eye of the beholder and/or the hands of those around them and their social status. Percy uses many examples in his writing including that of an explorer, tourist, and local all seeing things for the first time either literally or in a new different light. In this essay, I will play on both sides of regaining experiences, seeing things on a different level then before or the first time. Regaining experiences is a valid argument brought up by Percy as it is achievable. While criticizing each side of the argument, I will also answer questions as to the validity of Percy's argument,

In his speech, This is Water, Wallace gives us the story of how the two young fish failed to realize that they were in water. A simple, yet meaningful example demonstrates that what is obvious, is often difficult to notice. As people become more worried about themselves, they are unable to capture the value or lesson from experiences which results in distress. Throughout the speech, Wallace reminds the audience that they can avoid this by being aware, but to also accept the fact that the world doesn’t revolve around you. Wallace effectively builds a relationship with the audience when he says, “If anybody feels like perspiring, I’d advise you to go ahead, because I’m sure going to.” Wallace immediately undermines any image of an authoritative demeanor when he says that he “feels like perspiring.” He further supports his connection with the audience when he says, “I am not the wise old fish” (Wallace). Wallace’s down to earth persona relates to the rhetorical appeal of ethos, which validates his trustworthiness. Being a credible speaker will leave a lasting impact among the audience as they can see that Wallace is truly sharing a message that means a great deal to him. By stating that he does not represent the old fish proves that he isn’t here to blindly lecture, but to give solid advice to the graduate students and parents.

Both Wallace and McCandless propose that life should be challenged in order to live the most fulfilling life, however the two differ in the ways they think life should be challenged. Wallace challenges the “default settings” in his life by attempting to change the way he thinks and make his thoughts more conscious of the society around him as opposed to self-centered thoughts. He describes it on page 5 saying, “Thinking this way is my natural default-setting. It 's the automatic, unconscious way that I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life when I 'm operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the center of the world and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world 's priorities”. Wallace believes in saying this that humans are inherently selfish creatures. This natural selfishness stems from basic animalistic fight or flight reflexes; humans maintain selfishness because they are always avidly rooting for their own survival. Wallace is of the belief that doing this is outdated, and we are far beyond the point of basic animal instincts. Because of this we should be able to actively change our thoughts to represent a state of mind that more closely reflects the society that we live in now. In order to break free of the animalistic impulses we must constantly make the conscious decisions to see life beyond ourselves, which would prove impossible for an animal but possible for the human who possesses generative

They were able to buy as many clothes as they could afford and fit in their closest.

Adventures come and go, and our opportunities in life can be so limited. Some of us take the path placed before us and other walk astray. Without pleasures and vices, we just become zombies to society and victims of repetition. In these three stories: A&P by John Updike, Greasy Lake by T. Coraghessan Boyle, and Where are you going? Where have you been? by Joyce Carol Oates, our protagonists undergo experiences where there is a lose of innocent and insight is gained. Like the characters we fade from the world that is expected of us and make choice we must live with. Many of us decide that we must take risk in order to prove that there is value to the extremities of life’s gifts, and without those little heaps of enjoyment our entire existence becomes bland. We all try to stay young and not let societies norms destroy the fun and happiness that unstructured participation gives you, but in order to survive in our materialist, monopolistic, capitl-laisefaireian society one has to grow up and make real life decisions. Our innocent is lost when doing so and to conform is almost as bad as to rebel.

Baldwin sets the expectation up by stating that “the artist must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone”. In his expectation Baldwin wants authors to be the best possible devices of expressing the existential feeling of loneliness to the reader, so the latter can better understand it and avoid becoming entrapped in it. The best example from the American author of meeting the expectation is Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In it Twain writes: “I would do the right thing and the clean thing, and go and write to that n****r’s owner and tell where he was; but deep down I knowed it was a lie, and He knowed it. You can’t pray a lie – I found that out” (Twain 267). This quote is Huck’s thoughts as he lost Jim. It was the point of the story where Huck happened to be completely and desperately alone. Twain illustrates for the reader how dangerous loneliness may be as Huck desperately turns to the religion for the first time and contemplates giving his best friend back to slavery. Despite all, in the end Huck decided to save Jim, even if it meant going to hell, truly signifying that, no matter what, we have to keep our values and not to submit to loneliness. Through this story Mark Twain was able to meet Baldwin’s expectation and make the readers more experienced in

We have all dreamed of having that perfect something; that thing we expected would be there and would make us happy for a particular moment or for the rest of our lives. Whether it is traveling to the best vacation spot, attending one’s dream school, working our dream job, etc., we have all had expectations of having the perfect thing. Unfortunately, not all our dreams have turned out the way we had hoped; sometimes we realize that perfect thing we have always dreamt about does not exist. This disappointment of realizing that perfect something is not what we had hoped for can be found in Gerald Manley Hopkins’ “Spring and Fall”.

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.

Open your eyes, and imagine the countless possibilities that can happen within your lifespan with one simplistic dream. Reconfigure and visualize the perfect life you cease to desire. There must be a moment within our existence to where we always want to change, no matter how small or substantial the significance it might be to our well-being. Sometimes we urge to want the unreachable, even it’s non-existent, we want ‘it’. Curiously enough, what may ‘it’ be? It could be a simple materialistic object, money, an automobile, the latest tech devices that are on the market. Going more in depth, a person, per say, a non-existent person. A being that we may think that we have seen and know for as long as we can remember only to realize that the being

Sam Smith's sophomore album, The Thrill Of It All, will be released worldwide on November 3rd via Capitol Records. Fans can pre-order the album now at http://samsmith.world/TTOIAU and those who pre-order the digital album will instantly receive the new track "Pray" plus the first single, "Too Good At Goodbyes." See below for full track listing. The Thrill Of It All finds Smith once again working alongside close friend and long-time collaborator Jimmy Napes plus Timbaland, Malay, Jason "Poo Bear" Boyd and Stargate. He also collaborates with the unsigned artist YEBBA on the song"No Peace."

While I could have ran away from dissonant situations within the park I decided to take a different approach to shifting the source of the dissonant elements in my mind. Here I had to move forward from holding onto memories from the past by creating new ones with the same characters I know and love. This was only possible due to the conscious decision to change my perception of events as well as attitudes towards these when they proved to lean towards unsavory such as standing in line for hours on end or the wanting desire to escape the midsummer heat. The added effort allowed me to rationalize the values of what I was experiencing and to embrace it all. A redefinition of my experiential goals lead to the modification of the importance that once lied with living up to a childhood dream that has been identified as unrealistic to replacing existing cognitive elements with new, conflicting