Consider The Lobster By David Foster Wallace Analysis

In the article, Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace, he writes about the Maine Lobster Festival and the morality of boiling lobsters alive. He commences the article by explaining what the festival is and the nature of the crowds. The festival is about lobsters and not actually celebrating anything but is tradition caused by the importance of lobster trapping in Maine. It is a popular event in Maine and traffic heavy Wallace writes about crowds of people doing annoying actions. Wallace appears to be trying to form an argument about the morality of boiling lobsters alive in a neutral way compared to the clear liberal bias of some other articles and films such as Food Inc. Wallace starts out writing about the festival however he seems to be fixated on morality and animal rights. Despite some of the annoying actions animal rights activists perform, such as barging into a church and screaming about animal rights, they do have a point that people generally agree with, which is that animals should not be tortured. The controversy is what is considered torture. Wallace also briefly discredits anyone saying lobsters do not or cannot feel pain. Some of the highlights of the text which are clear due to certain redundancies. One of these is the fact lobsters often are trying to escape the boiling …show more content…
Some are purposely cruel such as microwaving a lobster alive, or cutting off its tail and claws which, is popular in Europe. Other methods are the exact opposite, instead being an attempt to prevent the lobster from suffering, (similar as any farm animal would be killed) by stabbing it. The author points out that stabbing it once will not knock it unconscious or kill it due to the lobster’s biology. Some people just start it out in cold water, and start slowly heating it up similar to the way frogs are cooked despite being completely different