Awareness Found in the Ugliness
What our eyes fail to see is that one woman’s poison is another man’s ecstasy. So we’re constantly shoving down each other’s throats a concoction of what tastes like golden gasoline. In hopes that this slippery liquid would help set the other person free. Perhaps, if they had one sip, perhaps, they could think like me. All and all it makes no difference of your intentions righteous or evil; a lack of understanding is the destruction of all people. Wallace was a witness of the disconnect between people caused by a lack of desire to sympathize with anyone other than themselves. He successfully used the catfish and mountain view device to provoke critical thinking and entice us with an awareness of other people’s perspectives.
One device found in Wallace’s speech is defined as …show more content…
This device takes the readers out of one person’s perspective and brings to light the possibility of infinite perspectives. He illustrates the idea that the selfish driver in the hummer who cut you off might have a sick child who needs to get to urgently get to a hospital. With this device Wallace shakes us out of our default setting, and brings an awareness and respect for perspectives other than our own. Wallace realizes awareness is not something that comes easy for most people. As a matter of fact, he states that our DEFAULT setting is made to only accept our own perspective as the only TRUE understanding of the world. Similarly, Wallace uses the mountain view device when speaking about the dead eyed woman who just screamed at kid in the checkout line. He explains “Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer.” You see, each step forward you take on the mountain, the better your view of the world. Likewise, each step outside your own perspective the better your understanding of
What our eyes fail to see is that one woman’s poison is another man’s ecstasy. So we’re constantly shoving down each other’s throats a concoction of what tastes like golden gasoline. In hopes that this slippery liquid would help set the other person free. Perhaps, if they had one sip, perhaps, they could think like me. All and all it makes no difference of your intentions righteous or evil; a lack of understanding is the destruction of all people. Wallace was a witness of the disconnect between people caused by a lack of desire to sympathize with anyone other than themselves. He successfully used the catfish and mountain view device to provoke critical thinking and entice us with an awareness of other people’s perspectives.
One device found in Wallace’s speech is defined as …show more content…
This device takes the readers out of one person’s perspective and brings to light the possibility of infinite perspectives. He illustrates the idea that the selfish driver in the hummer who cut you off might have a sick child who needs to get to urgently get to a hospital. With this device Wallace shakes us out of our default setting, and brings an awareness and respect for perspectives other than our own. Wallace realizes awareness is not something that comes easy for most people. As a matter of fact, he states that our DEFAULT setting is made to only accept our own perspective as the only TRUE understanding of the world. Similarly, Wallace uses the mountain view device when speaking about the dead eyed woman who just screamed at kid in the checkout line. He explains “Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer.” You see, each step forward you take on the mountain, the better your view of the world. Likewise, each step outside your own perspective the better your understanding of