Consider The Lobster Analysis

In Consider the Lobster, David Foster Wallace discusses whether or not it is humane to boil lobsters alive just for people’s gustatory pleasure. Wallace’s attention is directed to people who read the Gourmet Magazine, such as higher class people who are interested in knowing what their eating and how it’s prepared. He uses various appeals to engage his audience, convince them into believing his argument and earn credibility. He goes into depth about the Maine Lobster Festival specifically to inform people about what goes on at the festival and hope with knowing this information, less people attend. Wallace also discusses the lobsters’ reactions to being boiled alive and conveys his scientific research on the lobster’s bodies. Wallace’s position
He goes uses specific examples about how both, the lobster and the cook, react to the animal being boiled alive. He sends out many emotional appeals to his readers while doing this. Wallace describes how the lobsters “hook it claws over the kettle’s rim like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a roof” (Wallace 248). In stating this, Wallace urges to show the audience how the lobsters suffer as a human would. This comparison also allows the reader to put themselves in place of the lobster and feel sympathetic towards lobsters being boiled alive. Wallace adds, “the lobster acts as if it is in terrible pain, causing some of the cooks to leave the kitchen” (Wallace 248). The essence of Wallace incorporating this is to show that some of the people who boil lobsters alive cannot stand the noises and clashing the lobsters does while being boiled because it causes a feeling of guilt. This works in Wallace’s favor because it shows that the cook understands that the lobsters are in pain, but still some how manages to continue to cook them anyway. It could be argued that in reality, lobsters cannot feel pain, but Wallace defeats when he incorporates his scientific