Aastha Rai
Miss Matalone
English 101 H1
October 19, 2017
Lobster Love “Consider the Lobster” is an article written by David Foster Wallace that appeared on the magazine Gourmet which provides thought provoking information about the morality behind consuming lobster. Wallace wants his readers to literally consider the lobster as he discusses about the culinary and ethical dimensions of cooking a live creature with possible sentiment. By giving the example of a lobster, he tries to convey that many other animals such as deer are treated inhumanely for the sake of human satisfaction. Even though Wallace has no intentions of persuading his readers to become a vegetarian, the sole purpose of writing this article is to address animal
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He writes about how the lobster is raised and harvested, stored in a supe market and eventually boiled alive in a pot or a kettle. He also explains about the history of the lobster and mentions how it was a low class food, eaten only by the poor and industrialized. But now it is served as one of the greatest delicacy in a high end restaurant. According to Wallace, “the lobster will sometimes try to cling to the container’s side or even to hook its claw over the kettle’s rim like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a roof…you can usually hear the cover rattling and clanking as the lobster tries to push it off or the creature’s claw scarping the sides of the kettle as it trashes around.” (page 62). Here, he tries to explain how just like humans, lobster also try to escape from the heat coming while they are stuffed in a kettle with boiling hot water. They can detect the slightest changes in the degree of the water. In order to make his point, he describes about the lobster’s decentralized nervous system which cannot interpret pain even if they can feel it. The visual image of the lobster trying to escape from the heat is really disturbing which give the reader a whole new perception about animal
David Foster Wallace in the article, “Consider the Lobster,” argues that the way people treat lobsters is horrible. Wallace supports his argument by questioning whether lobster can feel pain, listing and describing the different ways to cook a live lobster, and telling the origin of the lobster. The author’s purpose is to inform people that the way people treat lobster is horrific in order to report about the Maine Lobster Festival. The author writes in a sarcastic and casual tone for the readers of the Harper’s Magazine and to the public. If we look at Wallace’s question in black and white
“Consider the Lobster,” by David Foster Wallace, explains in great detail how the lobster industry is celebrated in Maine and many other mid-coast regions. David F. Wallace mentions the region’s two main communities are Camden and Rockland whom host the festival every summer at Harbor Park with a pleasant view of the water. Camden is described to have a many five star restaurants and phenomenal B&Bs to enjoy and feast upon. Tourism and lobster are the two main industries in the mid-coast region and brings joy to people and is very lucrative. The article “Consider the Lobster” was going on its 56th Annual MLF on July 30 – August 3, 2003 and was themed “Lighthouse, Laughter and Lobster” (Wallace, 2004, Para 2.)
He employs precise terms and maintaining a strategic distance from equivocal and general words all through the article (Connell & Sole, 2013). Wall utilized this expressive written work arrangement well since he exploits his words to give unique points of interest that painted a vignette for me by, “filling in the visual portrait” (Connell & Sole, 2013). Wallace paints this picture, In case you're tilting it from a container into the steaming pot, the lobster will try and attempt to stick to the container's sides or even to entrap its hooks over the kettle's edge like a man trying to keep from falling over the boundary of a rooftop. Furthermore, more terrible is the point at which the lobster's completely submerged.
The essay I chose was “Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace published in August 2004. The purpose of the essay is to point out the consideration and suffering of the lobster and more specifically, he uses the Maine Lobster Festival as an example. His introduction begins with the background and culture of the MLB. He even goes in to detail about the paid attendance of the festival, all the festivities that are held. From carnival rides to a parade and he even stated the amount of fresh caught lobsters (25,000).
Wallace also rationalizes his decision for eating lobster as well as other animals by claiming that he believes that we as humans are more morally valuable but does admit that his views are selfish. Wallace uses a descriptive writing pattern throughout the essay providing vivid details and descriptive words. Wallace paints a picture
An essay written by David Foster Wallace titled with” Consider the Lobster” reflects his own opinion and experience in the Maine Lobster Festival. Which tells the reader to consider the lobsters and their life with their feelings. The writer is mentioning some important points of consuming lobsters and how its related to an ethical issue, methods of cooking lobsters, low class food in 1800s, how lobsters are feeling pain, how lobsters behave, and their nervous systems. So in this essay, I will clarify the main points that Wallace mentioned in “Consider the Lobster”. First of all , Wallace talking about the festival and showing that Maine Lobster festival takes place in late July yearly on the western side of Penobscot Bay (midcoast trigon).
The essay, “Consider the Lobster,” the writer David Foster Wallace, explains how the Lobster industry is celebrated in the state’s midcoast regions and Maine being one of the most popular locations. One descriptive writing pattern being used in the essay is specific language. The author is using specific terms and avoiding vague and general words throughout the article. The author mentions two main regions that host the festival is a place that has 5 star restaurants, B&Bs and Rockland every summer right by Harbor Park with a clear view of the water.
We are all familiar with the notion of “pleasure.” Simple pleasures are ever-present in our lives but complex, extended pleasures are fulfilling yet fleeting. They bring about intense experiences to gratify our desires, although they are not a necessity, in the same way slaughtering and plating an overhunted species is not absolutely imperative. However, despite my own belief that an endangered species is not to be poached upon, I commend Liz Alderman for completing “Chefs Fight for Songbird” in a way in which she successfully set key points from both sides of the arguments while also discreetly and strategically establishing and backing her own position in the feud. For those completely unfamiliar with the topic, Alderman might be able to
This short story explains and questions how people find eating animals morally acceptable. Steiner 's short story explains that whenever people think these animals are being treated respectfully they are being ignorant to the fact of how these animals are truly treated; Steiner brings up the fact of how an animals typical horrid life is and how it transitions from its horrid life to being killed by a butcher in a matter of seconds. Moreover, Steiner also adheres to the topic of how unacceptable, it is to kill these animals just for human consumption. Steiner 's purpose in writing this short story is to display to us the fact that eating any animal is not only wrong, but it is just downright unacceptable as it is mass murder of these innocent animals. Finally, Steiner tries to define at his best, what a strict vegan truly
Prepare For Future Some people say that human has to eat other creatures because human used too many years and experienced too many difficulties for standing on the top of the food chain. Humans deserve to eat other animals. In Buddhism, it publicizes that every life is equal. With this education, the Dalai Lama always thinks things in moral ways. Thus, he writes an essay called “Ethics and the New Genetics”.
The beginning of the essay, the tone and diction are both lighthearted and inconsequential- full of basic observations and details. As the argument progresses, the tone shifts to be much more serious, even the footnotes hold a more serious perspective and address more insightful issues. Even in the moments of sincerity, Wallace builds a place of non-threatening engagement, reassuring the audience that he is not an expert either and any decisions about the consumption of meat is an individual one. Such is evident in Footnote 14; Wallace explores the linguistic trends in naming food, then immediately identifies himself as a non-expert by restating that is is just a theory and asking about “biblio-historic reasons” that could unravel his whole
When I read this sentence in David Foster Wallace’s essay “Consider the Lobster”, I felt a distinctly physical sense of repulsion and empathy: “Lobsters don’t have much in the way of eyesight or hearing, but they do have an exquisite tactile sense, one facilitated by hundreds of thousands of tiny hairs that protrude through their carapace.” The phrase “exquisite tactile sense” is what really struck me, not because it’s a particularly special phrase in and of itself but because it was placed in the passage after terms like “live dismemberment” and “knife-in-the-head method” had been thrown out for the reader’s consideration. I can’t help but think that Foster Wallace did this intentionally as a way of emotionally skewering the reader; all I
Ethics can be based off of preference on this topic by acknowledging that lobsters are sentient beings and that humans should have “the willingness to exert personal agency and accept responsibility”(Wallace 6) if they partake in the practice of boiling lobsters. Another step towards a moral and ethical practice is trying to understand why humans disconnect and dissociate themselves from the similarities found in other species. It is acknowledged that the “clacking” of lobsters in a boiling pot are indications of pain, but there are prolong and complicated effort to reach this answer. This difficulty stems from the fact that lobsters are not place on the same level of importance. The author states, “I have not succeeded in working out any sort of personal ethical system in which the belief is truly defensible instead of selfishly convenient.”
On page 60, footnote 8 compares the pegging/banding of lobsters’ claws to the debeaking of broiler chickens, the cropping of swines’ tails, and the dehorning of cattle. Recognizing that the reader will likely fail to see the impact of the banding, Foster Wallace provides the comparison of other similar practices that will likely be more promptly deemed unacceptable. Under footnote 14, Foster Wallace extends the comparison, driving the reader to understand the distinction made between the consumption of mammals and non-mammals that is notable in speech. When describing mammals as food, we use separate words to distinguish them as creatures and dishes, such as “cow” and “beef,” and “pig” and “pork.” However, non-mammals share the same names in the wild and on menus, such as “shrimp,” “salmon,” and “lobster.”
The consumption of animal meat is highly accepted in today’s society, however, the methods, in which the animals are killed are sometimes questioned for their cruelty. David Wallace, in considering the Lobster, takes the readers to the Maine Lobster Festival, where the consumption of lobsters is exploited, and the festival's attendees celebrate these acts. However, the essay goes furthermore than narrating the lobster’s festival, because through sensory details, and different techniques, he makes the readers question society’s morality. By stressing the cruelty it takes boiling lobsters alive, Wallace is capable of creating a sense of awareness in society decisions that demonstrate their corrupted morality, and how it affects directly others (like lobsters)