While reading Toni Morrison's A Nobel Lecture, life jumps out to me as the main theme. This is similar to This is Water by David Foster Wallace because life is also prominent as the main theme. Both express their thoughts on humans, interaction, and how this interaction translates back to how people take life. Right, wrong, good, bad, life, death, presence, and absence is all created by the “thinkers” or “language keepers”: you.
Wallace and Morrison also drive home perception in regards to life. However, the ways in which the two presenters speak on how life is perceived is what differs. Morrison speaks on life through language. She saw language as a barrier and/or bridge that brought the perceptions of life closer together (or drove them further apart). Wallace, on the other hand, spoke on life perceived through ones own thoughts. He talked about life and how you see it will always be how you perceive it. Whether you chose to do so selfishly or selflessly is up to you. Whether it is good, bad, or indifferent is up to you.
Whether your creation (or perception) stemmed from language and involvement with others like Toni Morrison presented, or your creation stemmed from your own thoughts as David Foster Wallace said, this generalized theme of life holds true through both texts.
It's correct that both Morrison and Wallace talk about life and how people comprehend life in different ways. The perception of life is what the two writers differ on. Morrison in fact talks about life as being a subject to language. Morrison pretty much says that language represents life as well as any action taking place in a person's life. Wallace writes on how life is perceived through thoughts. How we think of life is how life is...to each one of us. I personally agree with Wallace's perception on life. Life is represented by every individual's thoughts in the way he/she determines life to be.
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