The Tempest Practice IOC

http://vocaroo.com/i/s06Htpbe07fK

David Foster Essay Analysis

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?

David Foster Wallace is an American writer who wrote the essay, 'This is Water.' This essay begins with an example of two young fish swimming who happen to cross paths and have a conversation. Although the conversation can be seen as simplistic and with no meaning, it introduces the theme of oblivion and this essay is based upon the consequences of choosing to be oblivious about one's surroundings or choosing to be aware and essentially, open our eyes to the things, people and situations around us rather than being focused on ourselves and only our situation. Furthermore, this essay explains how self satisfaction and personal happiness is also tied into choosing to be aware. 

Even though the author wants us to shift away from the 'me, me, and me' attitude, the mention of how being aware will benefit us, automatically makes the purpose of this essay contradictory. This shows that Wallace is well aware that if he wants his readers attention and wants them to really think about the message he is trying to convey- importance of understanding and being conscious of others- he needs to have a lure that will be beneficial for humans because as he mentioned in his essay, we have a 'default' setting which only allows us to think one way which, for most people, is about ourselves only however, he also mentions that we have the choice to change our default setting.

This theory directly relates to our inquire question of, 'How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?' Pop- culture fiction books/novels tend to have plots that are very character bases, generally one single character is the centre of the entire plot and everything else is revolving around that. The nature of these kind of plots brings about the concept of being 'self- centred' because the readers simply don't care about the setting or the other characters as much because they are too divulged in the life of the main character. These 'self- centred' plots are parallel and synonymous to the lives of people living in big cities because their lives is only about them. If they are going back home from work and there is a lot of traffic, other people are in their way however if they take a step back from being self consumed, they will be able to see that they are also adding to the traffic flow therefore, they themselves are also in the way of others trying to reach home. This is just one example but this kind of mindset appears in many situations and rather than people being negative, frustrated and exhausted by other people getting in their way, people can use the same amount of time in being reflective of surroundings and maybe think/speculate about what they see, other than themselves. This shows that literary pieces of work assist in making the default setting of a person to be more of aware because literary texts are more about the setting and the different characteristics- or shades of grey one could say- of the different characters rather than just one main character.