David Foster Wallace

In “Consider The Lobster,” David Foster Wallace offers an interestingly ironic perspective on the intent of a creator when it comes to literature. As an author, Wallace has an insider’s perspective as to how audiences should be treating and accepting various forms of literature. On the surface, “Consider The Lobster” is an essay about the unimaginable treatment of lobsters in the Maine Lobster Festival which has an incredible lasting impact on the reader, leading them to feel an extreme amount of sympathy for the millions of lobsters tortured during the festival. Throughout the essay, he brings up a lot of definitive points that drive this sympathy into his reader, such as a hypothetical parallel “Nebraska Beef Festival...” where part of the festivities is watching trucks pull up with live cattle that “...get driven down the ramp and slaughtered right there on the World’s Largest Killing Floor...” (Wallace 62.) He also presents another tragic image of a lobster as it’s being cooked, explaining how “the lobster will sometimes try to cling to the container’s sides or even to hook its claws over the kettle’s rim like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a…

The modern world has begun to question where exactly our food comes from and how its treated, and the lobster is no exception. “Consider the Lobster” by David Foster Wallace gives us some history on the lobster, how it is cooked, and, specifically, the yearly lobster festival held in Maine. He begins by going into great detail about the lobster festival and various aspects of it that lead us to believe that lobster may not just be for the 'upper class', such as using various lower class symbols…

confronted.” David Foster Wallace’s use of characterization throughout “Good People” paints a picture of a protagonist fighting several simultaneous inner battles for his own mind and soul. As Lane A. Dean weighs superficial predicaments like his pending relationship with Sheri and the fate of their unborn child, his inner battles take precedence. The story is a written navigation of Lane’s internal conflicts: honesty versus hypocrisy, faith versus temptation, and “good” versus “bad.” As the…

David Foster Wallace and Herman Melville use word choice to establish their ethos as they demonstrate pictures of disorder, while law is not present. “This is Water,” by David Foster Wallace was a commencement speech given by Wallace at Kenyon College on May 21, 2005. It later became an essay that was first published in a book by “Little Brown and Company” in 2009. “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street,” is a short story written by Herman Melville, that was first published in 1853.…

Beady eyes, long bodies, and pinchy fingers are some attributes that make humans unapproachable. Unfortunately, they have also managed to selfishly devour a majority of the living species they come in contact with, including lobsters. David Foster Wallace wrote an essay titled, “Consider the Lobster,” to inform the public about the issues that has been happening between the lobster consumers, lobster defenders, and their feelings towards boiling alive the aquatic crustacean. Wallace is obviously…

evident that David Foster Wallace does not sing the festival’s praises or provide insider tips. In spite of his unconventional viewpoint, he does more than delve into the history of lobsters and question the way they are prepared; he uses the festival as a vessel to allude to the commonplace atrocities and overlooked injustices in American culture. In his derisive article, Wallace explores the moral and ethical implications…

At least, that is what David Foster Wallace, the author of “Consider the Lobster”, proposes to his readers. He does this through his experience of the Maine Lobster Festival, or MLF, as well as examining the ways in which lobster is handled, prepared, and how people justify these practices. Knowing that the vast majority of lobster is boiled alive, the question posed is important not only for our morality but for the sake of all lobsters. Wallace takes this issue and looks at both sides of the…

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…

Samuel Allen Dr.Suderman ENC 1102 5 Mar. 2016 Good People The essay “Good People” by David Foster Wallace, tells the very intimate troubles of a young couple. The story is told by alternating between the first-person point-of-view of Lane A. Dean, Jr., and limited omniscient point-of-view who knows the thoughts and inner feelings of the couple. Both Lane and Sheri are devout Christians who have grown their relationship in the eyes of God, so they take their religion very seriously. The essay…

fabric of reality, and every minor variable is taken in to account in the equation of the creation of that fabric. A soda, left to fend for itself on a wall. May be a product of ones lack of care for the environment, a casualty in a bigger drama amongst someone’s life, or even a coincidental landing from a storm. That can, none the less is on the wall regardless. “This is Water” by David Foster Wallace is a short explanation of the differencing reality’s one may perceive. Wallace’s outstanding…