Considering the Lobster

David Foster Wallace writes a very well-developed researched essay that reads very smoothly, moving coherently from one point to the next. It is a very convincing piece in which the author makes the reader believe or at least consider everything he is says, even though he has a double-sided view on the argument. However, I believe he loses focus on what he was supposed to do, and the article does not serve its purpose.

To my understanding, “Consider the Lobster” was meant to be somewhat like a review of the 26th Annual Marine Lobster Festival (MLF) in Maine. By the end of the article, however, the MLF feels only like an introduction that dragged on a little too long. The author’s actual focus turns out to be the cruel ways in which lobsters, and later on other animals, are treated before and during the process of cooking. Foster Wallace begins speaking about the harsh manner in which lobsters are kept in closed and crowded spaces to which they are not accustomed; how they are kept alive until they are cooked; and how humans run away from the boiling pot when the lobster rattles trying to get out, or how they simply avoid thinking about animals as living beings to not feel guilty about their eating habits. This all, of course, makes the reader think he is arguing against the maltreatment of lobsters, along with other animals. Nonetheless, the author afterwards admits that he himself tries to avoid thinking about these topics because he likes to eat what he eats, and wants to be able to continue doing it. He is, thus, defending/understanding the consumer’s side as well. This is the strangest thing about this article. Apart from the fact that Foster Wallace turns a review or a friendly article for a cooking magazine into an intricate researched essay, he does not even definitively argue for one side or the other. Instead, he presents both sides and lets the reader think for himself/herself and decide how he/she feels after knowing all the facts.