David Foster Wallace's  Essay Structure

      David Foster Wallace, author of the essay titled "Consider the Lobster," writes about the ethical dilemma that cooking a lobster alive presents to the consumers. He is a popular journalist, assigned by the food and travel magazine "Gourmet," to write an article on the annual Maine Lobster Festival. He begins this essay by describing the Festival and his assignment, neither of which he discussed thoroughly. Secondly, he writes about the etymology and taxonomy of lobsters. He tells the readers that lobsters are part of the marine crustacean family Homariadae and are of the class Crustacea. By naming the lobsters scientifically. he gives ten a more meaningful identity. Next, he informs the readers of the history of lobster consumption. Apparently, it was not until after the 1800s that lobsters were considered a delicacy. Before then, it was considered cruel to feed them to prisoners more than once a week. Wallace soon transitions to talk about the preparation of the lobster, whether it be boiling, baking, steamed, or grilled. It is now that Wallace introduces the topic and question of suffering. By breaking down the lobster's anatomy and physiology, Wallace is able to make the readers feel terrible for doing such inhumane tasks. Wallace takes the pain away from the sciences and into the realm of philosophy. He says that although lobsters do not have a cerebral cortex, they still may feel pain. Pain is mental, and we are only able to gauge our own pain- it is purely subjective. Lobsters also suffer; they have an awareness of pain as unpleasant and they fear death. Wallace does not reach a final conclusion but instead projects the question directly to readers, asking them, “Do you think much about the moral status and suffering of the animals [that you eat]? If you do, what ethical convictions have you worked out that permit you not just to eat but to savor and enjoy flesh-based viands?”