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In “Consider the Lobster,” Wallace achieves two goals at once. First, the author offers poignant commentary on the ethics of eating sentient beings—no matter how low on the food chain. Second, Wallace offers commentary on the ways marketers can dictate local and even global food trends. Wallace uses compelling examples and a combination of pathos, ethos, and logos to argue that boiling a lobster alive represents unethical behavior.
Using logos, Wallace points out that the obsession with lobster is akin to the obsession with diamonds: it was simply a marketing technique designed to sell consumers on the idea of something luxurious. In fact, lobsters were considered “low-class food, eaten only by the poor and institutionalized,” (55). Bottom feeders and little more than “giant sea insects,” lobsters somehow became associated with luxury and considered a fine dining delicacy worldwide (Wallace 55). Later, Wallace also uses factual evidence to show that lobsters have pain receptors and that boiling them alive does indeed cause the creatures pain.
Ethos refers to Wallace’s own credibility as a writer. Ultimately, the author demonstrates a remarkable aptitude for food journalism given that the article was predicated on the assumption that he would simply cover the largest lobster festival in the world. Wallace is a food journalist and being assigned to cover the festival triggered his ethical inquiry into lobster.
Pathos refers to the emotional impact of Wallace’s argument. Wallace uses vivid imagery about how a lobster has to be boiled alive: a process that causes pain and can be considered patently cruel. The author acknowledges that the lobster is fresh and tasty while making his point.
In conclusion, David Foster Wallace’s article “Consider the Lobster” is so effective because of the use of pathos, ethos, and logos. Boiling a lobster alive is cruel and unethical, according to the author. Moreover, eating lobster is succumbing to mass marketing.
Works Cited
Wallace, David Foster. “Consider the Lobster.” Gourmet. August 2004. http://www.columbia.edu/~col8/lobsterarticle.pdf
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