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Essay / The issue of inhumane treatment of animals in Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
In David Foster Wallace's article Consider the Lobster, the author begins by explaining the festival he was attending, known as Maine Lobster Festival. Wallace begins by explaining what the Maine Lobster Festival is all about, from the crowds it draws to exactly how the lobsters are processed. He also uses this article to show and direct readers to the cruelty that lobsters go through for people's entertainment. Wallace's main point is to try to provoke readers about the morality of cooking and eating all animals. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay “We have no direct access to the pain of anyone or anything other than our own.” Wallace uses this quote in the article Consider the lobster that sets the tone throughout the article as aggressive and overall bothered by the topic of how animals, but especially lobsters, are treated. There are parts of the article that show the direct focus on aggression and being bothered, especially when it starts talking about how they are being manipulated and how people really don't see anything of harm in the way they are cooked, and that they can feel and have human reactions when boiled. Wallace uses the aggressive tone to get his point across when he states that the way we humans treat animals for our own pleasure and entertainment is wrong. Not only does he have this tone throughout the article, but you can also get a sense of him. just being disturbed everywhere. "From where you can choose your dinner while he watches you show..." Wallace seems bothered not only by the way the animals are cooked, but also by the way the festival is run and the fact that people there always attend without seeing him. a problem with that. Wallace also brings up the fact that this is part of a cultural divide, stating that lobster was once considered a lower class meal and now they have an entire festival around the idea of cooking and eating lobsters lively for entertainment and tourist attraction. When you start reading the article you're not sure what to expect or where it's going to take you, each sentence seems to contradict the last or make no sense as to why it's inserted here. Wallace talks about the festival and what it does, as well as how it attracts people to the area, his main point throughout the article always comes back to the fact that the way lobsters are treated is wrong and inhumane. Although Wallace supports his argument that it is wrong to cook lobsters alive, he also adds that many people try to defend him by saying that it doesn't matter because lobsters themselves cannot feel pain. “We have no direct access to the pain of anyone or anything except our own.” When Wallace uses this statement he is showing us that not everyone believes that how they are treated matters because they do not believe they can feel pain, but Wallace uses pathos heavily in the middle of Consider the Lobster. performs at the Maine Lobster Festival and compares it to how a Nebraska Beef Festival might take place, saying "what part of the festivities is watching the trucks pull up and the live cattle being driven up the ramp and slaughtered right there. .." this is used as a way to play on the likelihood of feeling bad for the livestock andthat it would never happen, which in the long run is no different than how lobsters are handled differently. By using pathos, Wallace is able to touch the readers' hearts by referencing these two topics. Many people don't refer to eating a cow when eating beef because of the attachment it gives to the meat. Except when referring to lobsters, they don't think anything different about it because, as Wallace states that "the fact is that lobsters are essentially giant marine insects", because of this, many people don't attach themselves to them. don't and don't hesitate to eat it, just because it's not a pet, people don't really think it exists. something wrong with eating it, but to say it was a pet would be a whole other topic and probably not as common as it is today. In the article, Wallace goes back and forth to argue the arguments that animals feel no pain, how animals are used to be tortured for entertainment and/or gourmet meals for people , but I believe Consider the Lobster was written to really make you think about how we treat all animals. Wallace begins to explain the process that lobsters and the chefs who cook them must go through. Not much thought goes into their preparation and everyone sees it as simply a gourmet or unusual main course. After reading and understanding But, throughout Consider the Lobster, Wallace makes many main arguments to support his claim that the morality behind cooking and eating lobster is false. It makes it very clear that cooking lobsters is an ethical issue. “In other words, the lobster behaves pretty much like you or I would behave if we were plunged into boiling water.” Using this statement makes readers feel guilty for comparing such a human reaction to that of an animal, and how thinking about it would make anyone uncomfortable. “One detail so obvious that recipes don't even bother to mention it is that the lobster is supposed to be alive when you put it in the kettle” When talking about cooking lobsters, Wallace shows that it's only part of the process. the norm of harming the lobster without thinking about the animal itself, this shows that our culture has made it normal to inflict pain on animals just to cook and enjoy them. Wallace also says many cooks will have to leave the room because they don't want to hear the process of cooking a live lobster. "Or the creature's claws scraping the sides of the kettle as it struggles", this quote alone shows how Wallace is bothered by the whole process of cooking lobsters, as everyone should be . If the way we cooked lobsters wasn't bad, the cooks wouldn't have to leave the room. This does not always have to be just for lobsters, but can be used against any animal, it is an inhumane way of treating animals. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized paper now from our expert writers. Get a custom essay My final thoughts while reading this article came to the simple fact that the way we treat animals is inhumane, David Wallace proved this through Consider the Lobster. After reading this, I believe many people can see the bigger picture if they just take the time and truly understand the meaning. Reading this article, it really makes you sit up and open your eyes to the 2004.