Consider The Lobster Article Analysis

Consider The Lobster Article Analysis
The article, Consider the Lobster, was very interesting. It started out kind of bland but I learned a lot about cooking lobsters and the annual Lobster
Festival that takes place in Maine. I think that by writing this article the author was not only wanting to advertise the annual Main Lobster Festival, but
he also wanted to inform his readers on different ways that lobsters are cooked. He wanted to discuss his opinion on boiling lobsters alive. He believed
that it may sound inhumane, but then he provided background information to show why he believes it is not. At the beginning of the article the author
writes about the annual Main Lobster Festival. He compares this festival to a mid–town county fair. Although, instead of having greasy corn
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David Foster Wallace's Consider The Lobster
Off the Bay of Penobscot lays the nerve stem of the lobster industry positioned in the state's mid–coast region, the world's largest lobster festival takes
place highlighting the area's top delicacy, and the beauty tourists travel for. David Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster" article is a persuasive
article that uses Logical, Emotional, and Ethical appeals to sway the reader his way supported by facts to add credibility to his point of view. David
starts off painting a beautiful image about the Maine Lobster Festival, and he turns on the microscope on the poor Lobster and what it goes through
appealing to the reader emotionally. With his facts appealing rationally and questioning the reader through the ethically through the credibility

David Foster Wallace Consider The Lobster Summary
Is it morally right to boil a lobster alive for culinary enjoyment? David Foster Wallace displays his confusion on this subject in his informative essay
titled "Consider the Lobster.". He informs you about the famed Maine Lobster Festival, where more than 25,000 pounds of fresh–caught lobster is
prepared and consumed. He then goes into detail about the debate on the morality of such an event. There are a lot of questions raised in this essay,
and the lobster is the focus of all of them. Wallace asks people to investigate their own feelings when he asks them to consider how comfortable it is
for people to boil lobsters alive, how much pain the lobster is in when it is being prepared, and what it is like to be in the shoes of this crustacean. The
purpose of this essay was to inform the people and get them to consider the integrity of our most common cooking method when it comes to the
lobster. First of all, the experience of boiling a creature alive tends to feel quite uncomfortable for a lot of people, and there's no avoiding that. Wallace
says that "it's not just that lobsters get boiled alive, it's that you do it yourself –– or at least it's done specifically for you, on–site" (703). This tends to
feel almost selfish due to the fact that the animal is suffering for your enjoyment. To make matters worse, the intimacy of this process is at a maximum
when performed in your own home. Here, you get to watch as the lobster attempts to cling to the sides of the container as you

Any object can be the topic for discussion, as long as it is relevant to the current reality of today's society. In 2005, David Foster Wallace published,
"Consider The Lobster," in Gourmet magazine. In this piece Wallace provides evidence that lobster is more than just a posh crustacean enjoyed by the
rich and famous, but instead an example for an aspect of American society today that is commonly overlooked. Throughout this article, Wallace uses
his clever sense of humor, extensive footnotes, and powerful rhetorical questions to relay the idea that ignorance is an essential theme in American
society that complicates more facets of our lives, than we care to believe. With excessive amounts of stimulus throughout our lives today it can be
difficult to draw the desired...show more content...
The title, "Consider the Lobster," obviously insinuates that the article will include lobsters, but by specifically using the word consider, Wallace is
suggesting that his work is also a discussion between his audience and himself. In order to write this article in this conversational style, Wallace utilizes
rhetorical questions that constantly force the audience to think and respond as they read. When Wallace discusses how people choose to not think
about lobsters suffering when they are being cooked, and how it's similar to medieval torture–festivals, he follows up with the question, "Does that
comparison seem a bit much?" (253). By asking that question after going through an extensive explanation about how humans think about cooking
lobsters, Wallace forces the audience to create a response considering his entire argument. Instead of just plainly stating his thinking, Wallace's work
serves to have a more significant effect on his audience, because they are just as involved in this discussion as Wallace is

Everyone has an opinion when it comes to animals being killed and eaten. If a person agrees or not is completely their own opinion and will not be
the focus of the essay. David Wallace's essay " Consider the Lobster," is used to address perspectives of varying opinions while trying to persuade the
reader. The author accomplishes this throughout the essay through the excellent use of multiple rhetorical techniques. Rhetorical devices such as ethos,
lothos and pathos are all used in the essay to convey the author's opinion and try to convince the reader to choose a side. In the essay Wallace uses
pathos throughout the essay to appeal to his audiences emotions. The interesting aspect of the essay is that it is published in a gourmet magazine...show
more content...
He is not even trying to persuade the reader to stop eating lobster. Wallace is trying to give different perspectives to a audience that most likely eats
lobster. He effectively does this to a audience that will probably support some of the things he is saying through the use of rhetorical devices. He use
pathos to try to make the readers feel different emotions on eating and killing lobsters. The author uses ethics in a special way by using a plethora of
research and sophisticated writing to make his ideals seem credible to the audience. Lastly, Wallace uses logos in his article by putting loads of
scientific information that helps support his argument on lobsters. This article was made for a tough audience that probably majority if not all eat or
has eaten lobster. It doesn't really matter to this audience and will not change their opinions but the article was made to make them think more about
the next time they decide to eat

Analysis Of Consider The Lobster
Consideration: thoughtful of the rights and feelings of others
How do you consider the lobster? David Foster Wallace wrote the essay Consider the Lobster. After the reading, the essay for the first time the thoughts
that went through my head consisted of how the lobsters were treated and what Wallace thought of the lobsters. The lobsters are chosen out of usually
a pot or a giant tank and then boiled to death. They are placed into a pot of boiling hot water and the saying that the lobsters are screaming in the pot
comes to be true. Some people find it disturbing to listen to the sound while others cover the pot and not let it bother them. Also, from the first reading
I thought that Wallace was being somewhat hypocritical because I got the idea that it was acceptable for him to eat and coo ketch lobsters but seeing it
done in the setting of a restaurant, in a larger quantity makes it worse. Gathering all this information again had made me rethink the essay and look
towards the deeper meaning. Wallace committed suicide in 2008 due to mental illness. So, when we consider the lobster does it mean that to be
considerate of it? Another point I came to was about was mental illness and how in 2008 Wallace committed suicide. When lobsters are chosen and
boiled to eat, those people are sending them to their 'grave'. So, what does being considerate consist of when discussing a lobster, a dead body and the
food we are about to eat?
Jessica Mitford wrote the essay "The Story of

Consider The Lobster By David Foster Wallace
It all comes down to Preference: Paper #1 "Consider the Lobster"
In Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace, the author questions why is it ok "to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory
pleasure?"(Wallace, 60). Wallace questions why people, those who eat the lobsters, find it morally and ethically correct to eat a sentient being that has
been tortured. Wallace uses the lobster to convey the picture of a sentient creature being tortured before its consumption, through this he explains the
preferences of the people who eat these creatures and how their morals and ethics have been redefined to find the process acceptable. This paper will
discuss Wallace 's examination of his question and how the solution relates to preference, morals, and ethics. While on the surface the essay is about
why those eating lobster find it alright to torture the creature first before consuming it, what the author is really exploring is humans "preferring" not to
cross paths with moral problems like torture, causing ethical practices to progress the avoidance and less urgency of these moral problems.
Many people at the Maine Lobster Festival find it easy to believe that lobsters feel no pain in order to continue to torture the animal before indulging it
without empathy or regret. This ethical practice has been created in order to backup the thoughts of accepting the ideology that it 's "all right" to torture
the animal before consumption. While Wallace is in a rental car he

Consider The Lobster Research Paper
Would you rather find a bug in your apple and have your salad be on the wilted side, or take a big bite of artificial flavors and chemicals? What
would you rather eat for dinner; a quick pick up from a fast food restaurant or a nutritious home cooked meal? For some, there may be no choice but to
pick off the dollar menu at McDonalds or Burger King. Due to this circumstance, the consequences include an all–time rise of childhood obesity and
Type 2 diabetes in the U.S. However, this circumstance is usually due to parents not being around, or a parent not having enough time or money to
purchase fresh produce. The access to fresh, local, organic produce is difficult to come by, especially in low–income neighborhoods or towns. "I tend
to sympathize...show more content...
Throughout the years, food has developed into more than something to eat. Food, and the cooking and preparation of food has become an art;
something to enjoy and savor. Food brings people together. Gastronomy, the practice or art of choosing, cooking, and eating good food, has
become world renowned. Gourmet and delicacy foods, go for up to hundreds of dollars. Ironically, a common food for the wealthy, lobster, was
once a low class food that was fed to prisoners up until the 1800's. In fact, "some colonies had laws against feeding lobsters to inmates more than
once a week because it was thought to be cruel and unusual" (460). A big controversial question about lobsters is: do lobsters feel pain? Some
believe they do not feel pain due to the lack of a complex nervous system and a cerebral cortex, which in humans is the area that gives the experience
of pain. Some, however, believe lobsters do in fact feel pain, possibly even more vulnerable than humans, due to their tiny fiber like hairs that surround
their body, and their lack of mammalian nervous systems analgesia–what controls pain. The question that will remain undeceive, "Is it right to boil a
sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?" (464). People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), believes that "animals are not
ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way". However, PETA can definitely be over the top extreme when the
topic of animals arises. Whether the concept of if lobsters feel pain or not is viable, "Do you think much about the (possible) moral status and the
(probable) suffering of the animals involved?"

David Foster Wallace, Jessica Mittford's Essay
Being considerate toward everybody and everything is the ideal goal that everybody hopes to achieve. Though the idea of being considerate is
different depending on the person so reaching that point in the world is impossible to achieve since there is no baseline for that, we have many
competing ideas as to what that could be. Some people see being considerate as being thoughtful of other people but others will see it as a deeper
meaning with being courteous toward all living things on Earth and their belongings. There are so many different ways to be considerate and the
readings of David Foster Wallace, Jessica Mittford, and Caitlin Doughty all have underlying messages of how people need to be more aware of what
they are doing. Each piece...show more content...
This is after he just gets done about talking about his own thoughts on the lobsters and how it is alright if people keep eating it. Now if he is fine
with people eating lobsters and wants to keep eating animals on his own time why does he spend time writing this entire essay? This essay is filled
with so many sensory details that the reader can feel such as the noise of the scuttling against the boiling pot with the lobster in it. He does this on
purpose to bring to light something you may not think about or brush off as nothing is actually going against your morals. Wallace poses an interesting
question in the conclusion of his essay by saying, "Do you think much about the (possible) moral status and (probable) suffering of the animals
involved? If you do, what ethical convictions have you worked out that permit you not just to eat but to savor and enjoy flesh–based viands" (510).
This is his whole purpose of writing this essay since this question alone brings you back through his entire essay and all the "insignificant" details he
talked about and made you realize how significant they are in the amount of harm you may be bringing to the animal. This whole idea of awareness
and making sure your actions line up with your morales is echoed in the writings of Jessica Mittford in her story The American Way of Death
Revisited. Mittford opens the eyes of the reader to see what American's see as a

For centuries, meat is one of the major and popular food consumed by the human being. Apart from eating the meat, we rarely take the time to consider
about the process involved to ensure that the meat reaches our table. "Consider the Lobster" by David Foster Wallace makes readers think of the
little–known topic of animals rights, which is clearly explained to bring the whole picture concerning the violation of animal rights. In this essay, a
general picture is explored by the ways in which the creatures have to undergo the violation of humans before they end up in the mouths of the
consumers. Surely, the animals used for food also have rights, so they should be treated in a more ethical manner.
With "Consider the Lobster", Wallace carries an educative story, which helps readers understand the experiencing process of the lobsters and
appreciate the issues that he raises regarding the immoral acts done on the lobsters before are finally consumed. Wallace shows his compassion for
lobsters' pain when they are caught and boiled in the water. He writes, " the truth is that if you, the festival attendee, permit yourself to think that
lobsters can suffer and would rather not, the MLF begins to take on the aspect of something like a Roman circus or medieval torture–fest" (Wallace
553). He compares Maine Lobster Festival as well as serving lobster to the types of ancient games where the competitors had to suffer pain and
sorrows to entertain the crowd. Nowadays, in order to satisfy

Consider The Lobster Summary
Throughout "Consider the Lobster", an article written by David Foster Wallace about the 2004 Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace demonstrates that not
all of his writing is clear and concise. The author does this through his various viewpoints in the article, which allow him to capture the reader 's
attention. A particular sentence that captures the initiation of Wallace's writing is, "The suppers come in styrofoam trays, and the soft drinks are
iceless and flat, and the coffee is convenience–store coffee in more styrofoam, and the utensils are plastic (there are none of the special long skinny
forks for pushing out the tail meat.)" (Pg. 239). Within this sentence, Wallace describes the many parts of the festival and how they show the poor
side of the festival. Between the cheap styrofoam trays and the flat drinks, the festival gives off a poor vibe to the reader. Wallace's use of changing
viewpoints adds to what he originally wants to do, which is to give the reader a chance to pick which side of the argument they want to be on. The
author not only gives the reader different views, but he also changes his tone throughout the piece. By adding dynamic shifts in his writing, he includes
the reader and gives a better feel for what this article is really about. This sentence stands out due to the fact that Wallace talks about the positive aspects
of what occurs during the festival throughout the beginning of the article. This includes not only the amount of lobster that is being

'Consider The Lobster' By David Foster Wallace
The article, "Consider the Lobster.", by David Foster Wallace demonstrates a purpose to advise people to see that before consuming a lobster, we
should look at the lobsters orientation. Wallace uses ideology and emotion to get his points across, which becomes very resourceful to consumers who
should consider to see the reaction of lobsters on their consumption. Meat–eaters such as some humans will likely tend to avoid dispute to fairs of
animal rights and such as arguments with vegetarians against consumptions of animals. Wallace brings up torture of lobsters and how it is a alert that
it may be a humanistic pleasure. He also analysis all from how the lobster is enticement and accumulate, which lobsters are stored in markets, and
sooner or

Consider The Lobster Summary
The Truth about what's ethically and morally right
Summary of what I want to say on the introduction: Talk about ethics and morals, individually and socially. How integration and clash of cultures has
led to difficulty in regards to picking a side. Ideologies and truths. Brief introductions of the authors and their style of communication to their audience.
Consider the lobster: Ethics
Storytelling: Morals
David Foster Wallace's essay "Consider the Lobster" and Jonathan Foer pieces of "Storytelling" are two different texts that pose very significant issues,
but are at the same time complicated and hard to address.

Rhetorical Devices In Consider The Lobster
Hong Yu
English (2B)
Mr. Kasper
2017/12/08
Rhetorical Analysis of Consider The Lobster
In Consider The Lobster, David Foster Wallace raises an ethical question: "Is it right to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?"
However, this essay is not to provide a definite answer to this question but lets the readers come up with their own answers. Wallace uses rhetorical
strategies such as comparison, imagery, and questions to make the audiences think deep about the moral lens of consuming lobsters.
In this essay, Wallace uses pathos to show to the readers that lobsters are not what people think they are. In paragraph 5, Wallace says: "...lobsters are
basically giant sea–insects", and "it's true that they are garbagemen of the sea, eaters of...show more content...
He writes: "The lobster will sometimes cling to the container's sides or even to hook its claws over the kettle's rim like a person trying to keep
from going over the edge of a roof." This imagery uses a simile that horrifies the readers because it lets the readers feel like that they are the lobsters,
and they are being cooked. Wallace uses this sentence to place the readers in the lobsters' position and let them experience the pain. Later on, Wallace
also says: "the lobster, in other words, behaves very much as you or I would behave if we were plunged into boiling water." By making the connection
between lobsters and human, Wallace knows that this would change people's opinion towards cooking lobsters. Connecting lobsters' death to humans'
is an effective way of using pathos to make people think whether eating lobsters is an appropriate matter. This shows how human preferences leads to
lobsters' suffering. Wallace not only uses pathos to make the readers think whether eating lobster is the right thing to do but also uses ethos to make
him more credible and thus readers will listen to his

Animals as well as humans have been around for an extended period of time showing that there obviously has been some sort of interactions between
them throughout the years which may not have always been all the bad. They have been here for hundreds of thousands of years. They are our main
source of comfort, happiness, joy, fun, and of course: food. Without animals we would not be at the point in life where we are today. Our next best
source of food besides animals would have to be plants and who wants to eat plants all the time for every meal and only that? The treatment of those
animals that we use as a food source and even the ones as pets is not always positive. Lobsters, a primary food source for the wealthy, are treated very
poorly, for...show more content...
In the essay "Ethics and the New Genetics" by The Dalai Lama the most information about cloning is found. Within his first couple pages he makes
sure that he gets he view on the idea known. " In principle, I have no objection to cloning as such – as a technological instrument for medical and
therapeutic purposes" (The Dalai Lama, 135). Although there are many people who would agree with the Dalai Lama on the idea that cloning should
only be used for medical purposes there are many people who would also disagree with him on this and think that it is okay to clone at any point in
time for any reason, simply because they can and they want to. "I once saw a BBC documentary which simulated such creatures through computer
animation, with some distinctively recognizable human features. I was horrified" (The Dalai Lama 135). The first successful attempt at cloning was
Dolly the sheep. Animals were used as test subjects for cloning because who in their right mind would practice something that could end badly on
something or someone that actually does something useful in this world. No one is going to start out testing on a human because that is just pictured
as being wrong. So why is it fair to test something, that we have no idea how it will react, on a helpless animal. The animal cannot prevent the testing
from happening simply because it is an animal and it does not have the strength and power that

Consider The Lobster Research Paper
The consumption of meat over recent decades has become more than just a means of nutrition for the body, but also a game of hunting animals for
recreation and sport. Along with the popularization of hunting animals for sport came the early endangerment and extinction of certain species. With
this hobby the question arose, is it ethical to hunt and or eat meat? After reading "Consider the Lobster" written by David Foster Wallace, a person
may consider the history any meat goes through before it is ready for consumption. However, the consumption of meat is seen as a normal thing to do
on a daily basis, especially in America because our meals are typically centered around the meat being the main item of the meal. After reading "Ethics
and the...show more content...
Factors such as where the animal is kept, what it is being fed, if steroids are used or not, and the well being of the animal all must be taken into
consideration. Consuming meat that has been pumped with steroids and kept in tight quarters while being raised is far from ethical. The meat
also will be worse for human consumption because those are not good things to put in an animal so they are even worse to put in a human body or
to feed to kids, who rely more heavily on getting the appropriate nutritional needs because their bodies are still growing. The consumption of meat
is ethical for numerous reasons, however the process of how the animal makes it to the table may not be ethical and that decision comes down to
the consumer and how he or she chooses the meat that they consume depending on how morally the animal was treated before it was made
available for consumer consumption. "Consider the Lobster" by David Wallace highlights all important aspects of lobster consumption. He begins
by telling people how sufficient lobster meat is to our bodies, but also brings to his audiences' attention how it may be unethical and cruel.
Although Wallace considers the life of a lobster and other animals, he ends his paper with the statement "the reason it seems extreme to me appears
to be that I believe animals are less morally important than human beings" (Wallace 470). Ethically, this mindset is reasonable and is also the way
that most people in society feel as well. In "Ethics and the New Genetics", the Dalai Lama tells his readers the importance of "the need to ensure that
we hold compassion as the key motivation for all our endeavors" (Dalai Lama 69). The sad truth is that some people in this world do find pleasure in
eating animal meats and products, some even find compassion and pleasure killing these animals. Everyone grows up

In his essay Consider the Lobster, it's apparent what David Foster Wallace is trying to tell his audience: we should really think about the lobster's
point of view before cooking and eating it. Wallace uses multiple rhetorical strategies to get his point across, including pathos and ethos. His essay is
very good in how it gets its point across, and how it forces even the largest lobster consumers to truly contemplate how the lobster might react being
boiled alive. It brings up many controversial topics of animal rights that many people tend to avoid, especially people who are major carnivores.
Wallace's use of rhetorical strategies really gets the reader thinking, and thoroughly captures the argument of many vegetarians against the
consumption of animals. Wallace captures the use of pathos in his essay and uses it in a way that is incredibly convincing to the reader. For
example, he compares the Maine Lobster Festival to how a Nebraska Beef Festival could be, stating, "at which part of the festivities is watching
trucks pull up and the live cattle get driven down the ramp and slaughtered right there..." (Wallace 700). Playing off of people's natural tendency to
feel bad for the cattle, he shows that the killing of lobster is, in reality, no different than the killing of cattle, but we treat it much differently. We tend to
think that lobsters are different because they are less human than cows are, and, maybe to make us feel better about our senseless killing of an animal,

Wallace, "Consider the Lobster" 1. What is the author's view of his subject matter? What evidence supports this conclusion? David Foster Wallace
discusses in his essay "consider the lobster" how the Maine Lobster Festival combines two of the region's most profitable sources of income, tourism
and the fishing industry mainely lobster. He views the festival as a way to capitalize on both the fishing industry and tourism by hosting one large
event that has been promoted by news organizations and cooking magazines while being globally recognized. (page 1 ,paragraph 2) 2. What evidence
suggests that the author takes a more negative view of his subject? Explain. Wallace discusses how lobsters are considered garbageman of the seas and
...show more content...
The lobster meals at the festival are served on styrofoam trays and come with a flat soft drink or ready–made coffee served in styrofoam cups. For the
environmentally minded people out there this would be a complete nightmare as not only are you eating off the man–made plastic products that take
forever to decompose but it also shows how as long as people get what they want they do not care where it came from. Foster Wallace talks about
the morality of the whole subject which most people don't think about, you are literally killing a live animal right before you in order to consume
that same creature in a matter of minutes,also when it comes to factory farming their some truly gruesome thing that happens to the animals before
becoming dinner. Truth be told I myself went on a lobster boat as a tourist attraction in Maine about a year an ago and later I became ill because i
was eating the very creature I was just holding. In the essay foster Wallace directly states "Given this article's venue and my own lack of culinary
sophistication, I'm curious about whether the reader can identify with any of these reaction and acknowledgeable discomforts." he is referring to the
ethical comparison to lobsters feeling pain and how humans feel pain. It is really right to cause harm to another animal for your own gain is

American Novelist, essayist and short story author David Foster Wallace uses his essay "Consider the Lobster" to tell the reader about his thought
provoking visit to the Maine Lobster Festival. Wallace wrote this essay to show his thought process dealing with the moral ambiguity of cooking
lobster, and the research he did to further understand the subject. He primarily uses an informational tone with a heavy emphasis on pathos. He does a
fairly good job remaining unbiased and showing the counterarguments.
Wallace was sent to the MaineLobster Festival by Gourmet Magazine, he was tasked simply to write about his experience there. He took this as an
opportunity and decided that the risk he was taking in posing this question to the readers of...show more content...
Following this point he points out that perhaps lobsters understand pain but they "don't dislike it" and how "pain is not distressing them" (Wallace
63). He reinstates the fact that there is a clear difference in "pain as a purely neurological event" from pain as "actual suffering", the latter requiring
"an emotional component" (Wallace 36). Later on he states that this means that although lobster's experience pain it is not a struggle based on
discomfort but more of a preference. More akin to you preferring to sit in a certain spot around the table. These are used to inform the reader of the
physical aspects of the lobster that affect the overall moral ambiguity of the subject.
In his closing statements he takes the time to throw some more thought provoking sentences in, calling out a part of being a "real gourmet" (Wallace
64). Wallace wonders if future generations might look back and see our current "eating practices" similarly to how we see tribal sacrifices today. I see
this as an extreme analogy but it has its use in this essay, it brings out the thought that perhaps we should take a step back from our food and think about

Consider The Lobster Article Analysis

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