David Foster Wallace's Essay 'Consider The Lobster'

It’s interesting, really, to see some of my old papers from middle and high school. I look back and laugh at the time, maybe around the third grade, when my classmates and I would groan and complain about having to write an ENTIRE PARAGRAPH. Now, after years of writing significantly longer academic papers that stretch far beyond a simple paragraph, my style and the depth of my topics have evolved based on what I’ve read. The most important pastime for anyone who wishes to write, unsurprisingly, is to read a wide variety of material, starting at a young age. Studies have shown that children who read more than their peers exhibit a larger vocabulary as well as more complex writing styles. Since I was young, I’ve become a prolific reader. From My Father’s Dragon, my first “chapter book” I read myself, to The Sound and the Fury, novels have been a subconscious source of vocabulary and inspiration in my writing. Without reading, I’m sure …show more content…
One of the first pieces we read, David Foster Wallace’s essay Consider the Lobster, is about an annual state lobster festival. Although an inane subject, Wallace was able to dance around and through the topic while going on tangents that were sometimes pages long. Our first essay of the year had to follow the same style but the topics were totally up to us as long as it started out with an average, everyday occurrence. My essay, for example, started with my having to pick a fantasy Premier League team then, eventually, discussed Brexit and its implications on the international stage, both political and soccer. Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, featured in my second essay of the portfolio, takes an interesting position with the perspective of the narrator as a minor character. The idea of absurdity and apparent lies as truth plays a major part in Vonnegut’s story, which also seeps into his straightforward and jaded