David Foster Wallace's Expository Essay On Suffering

As human beings we feel the need to find a point to everything. It is hard to believe that something just happens. Good things happen for a reason, just as bad things do. Suffering is no different, in our minds there must be a point to experiencing bad things. Thus, suffering makes us stronger by strengthening our personality, motivating us to be better, and teaching us to accept what cannot be changed.
“Suffering is the substance of life and the root of personality, for it is only suffering that makes us persons,” so says Miguel de Unamuno. It might be true. Many different artists have dealt with struggles like trauma and mental disorders. Vincent Van Gogh is thought to have had depression, bi polar, and episode of derangement, and his work is considered some of the best. David Foster Wallace, is considered one of the most influential writers of the past three decades. Wallace had suffered from depression for many years, and unfortunately, committed suicide. From
We want, sometimes even need, to move on from suffering. Suffering is what motivates us to reach for the best. Many wildly successful people have overcome things like mental illnesses and trauma. For example, J.K. Rowling battled clinical depression while writing the first book of the Harry Potter series, in fact, the dementors in the series were written as a representation of her depression. Bethany Hamilton won the Explorer’s Women’s Division of the NSSA National Championships, even after losing an arm in a shark attack. Oprah Winfrey was molested repeatedly as a child, and gave birth at 14, only to lose the child shortly after. Alexis Carrel, surgeon and author of Man, The Unknown, once said, “Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.” I take this to mean that by remaking yourself, you become a better version of yourself, and if you want to be a better you badly enough, you can move past the suffering involved in