Boys & Girls practice IOC

IOC Recording

This is Water

This is Water, By David Foster Wallace

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. He develops this thesis through his use of metaphors everyday examples that we can relate to. He begins his essay, video (as can be seen in the video above), through his use of fish in a fishbowl, when one fish says to the other two "Morning, boys, how’s the water?" and one of them replies "what the hell is water?", and ends his essay with "This is water, this is water". Throughout the essay everyone is trying to understand what Wallace meant through his symbolism of the fish, in my opinion the two fish represent average people who he later describes as having a judgmental pessimistic default setting when put in certain situations that will later be discussed. And the other fish that says "this is water" could symbolise an empathetic person who has developed the ability to change their process of thinking through a quality education.

Throughout most of the video/essay Wallace describes to university students what their future will soon look like when they get a job and grow, he uses relatable situations such as going to the grocery and driving to places one would need to go, to show the different perspectives one could have for approaching these situations. He describes the thought process of two people waiting in line at the grocery checkout line, at first he shows the more usual situation where the person waiting in line would be complaining and thinking rudely of all the other people surrounding them, which Wallace describes as everyone’s ‘default setting’, which we need to change.

He discusses changing your default setting by empathising with people and trying to look at everyone’s situations in another perspective, he gives examples such as while you’re being cut off by someone on the road, they could be driving their loved one to a hospital, or the woman who appears rude at first in the grocery store could be the automobile worker that helped you settle a misunderstand the other day, although unlikely he reminds us that it is not completely impossible.

This can all be related to our unit inquiry question stating “how can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?”, because our knowledge of literature helps us develop greater skills to be able to turn off our ‘default setting’ and be able to empathise with people better. As this famous quote by George R. Martin states “a reader lives a thousand lives before he dies”. Which could further relate to the topic at hand. Reading different stories and understanding different contexts and perspectives helps people greater develop the skill to understanding others, and helps change ones mindset into a more understanding one that can help people go on through their lives feeling better about themselves, and their surroundings.

CAP Activity: Creativity - Whats your story?

Title: A mans world

Theme: Gender inequality & sexism

Plot: The story starts in a company. The audience soon finds out is the company owned by the protagonist’s father. As being introduced by the protagonist, he is described as a very old fashioned man who also suffers from ALS. As this disease is fatal, the father aims to have one of his two kids, either his daughter Aurora (the protagonist) or his son Noah to take over the company after he is no longer able to. The siblings start out in the story very friendly and close but as the story progresses their relationship becomes weaker due to their competition to take over the company. Throughout the story it becomes more obvious that Aurora is more qualified to run the company but their father is determined to lean towards Noah, as he believes that a woman cannot run the company. Although his thoughts are not expressed literally, Aurora constantly notices the subtle comments and arrangements that prove to her that her brother is bound to take over the company, but she is still persistent to prove him wrong. Everything was going okay up until one night in a club where Aurora has gone with her friends and comes across an aggressive drunk man, where the events lead to her coming out with a fatal head wound, which further distort the audiences predictions for the rest of the story.

Rising action/ External conflict: Aurora goes to a club with a few of her friends one night. Where a very intoxicated man approaches her trying to flirt with her. She firstly politely rejects him but he then becomes more physical with her in attempts to persuade her to leave with him. The moment the man begins to move his hand towards a more inappropriate part of her body Aurora tries to be released from his grip, which only makes him more aggressive. This is where she panics and throws her drink on the man as she quickly tries to get away from him. The man furiously follows and strikes her. After Aurora falls to the ground the man feels flustered and runs away as he notices some blood surrounding her head. She is then later spotted by one of her friends who were looking for her after her long absence.

Climax: Aurora is rushed to the hospital after being found by her friend, it appears that she suffered head force trauma to her left frontal lobe and was in need of immediate surgery. This event was the beginning of Aurora’s downfall. While still in the hospital bed, Noah kept on excelling and gaining the acceptance of their father. Noticing that her brother was on the road to fulfilling their father’s wishes of taking over the company, she is struck with an epiphany; that at this point she will most likely be overthrown at the hand of her brother. The audience should then start to reminisce over the scenes in this story and come to the conclusion that it might not end the protagonist’s way.

Denouement: A few days after Auroras incident she was released from the hospital, and was sent to go stay with her family (being that she needed to be cared for). Aurora being frustrated with her brother and father’s collusion she begins to argue with Noah. Aurora finally decides to voice her opinion on the topic and confronts her family on the fact that she was only not getting the position of her father’s company because she is a woman. Midway through this argument Aurora begins having a seizure and is immediately rushed back to the hospital, with her family at side.

Tragedy: After a rigorous operation Aurora wakes up in a hospital room feeling confused. At this point in the story the readers are guided through the eyes of Aurora, waking up and feeling hazy. She sees her mother and the doctor talking (where the mother is looking very distraught). This was due to the fact that the doctor had just explained that the frontal lobe of Aurora’s brain had been permanently damaged due to internal bleeding, and that it was this part in the brain that controls speech. The doctor then walks away and the mother begins to cry. Aurora tries to call out for her and tries to scream but her mother is not hearing her, nothing was coming out. Still in shock Aurora was not able to move, she sees her mother start to walk away.

Narrator: first person Narrator

Point of view: The style of this short story is inspired by the writer Abbi Glines, who in her stories names her chapters after the character that will be narrating in first person. This allows the readers to understand all the characters thought process’ and allows the audience to understand the events through more than just one perspective, this eliminates there being a biased narration.

So in this story although Aurora is obviously the main character, the rest of the characters still get to voice their experiences from their own point of view. Although Aurora is still the most one who narrates overall, Noah and her father each had certain times where they are able to narrate how they are feeling at that particular time in the story in relation to the current events.

Characters:

Protagonist: Aurora

Passive character: Noah