ipl-logo

The Lobster's Use Of Pathos In David Foster Wallace

731 Words3 Pages

to tell his audience: we should really think about the lobster’s point of view before consuming it. David Foster Wallace uses a multitude of rhetorical strategies to get his point across, including pathos and ethos. His essay is ingenious in how it gets its point across, and how it forces even the largest lobster consumers to truly contemplate how the lobster might react to its consumption. It brings up many controversial topics of animal rights that many people tend to avoid, especially people who are major carnivores. Wallace’s use of rhetorical strategies really gets the reader thinking, and thoroughly captures the argument of many vegetarians against the consumption of animals. David Foster Wallace really captures the use of pathos in his essay Consider …show more content…

Also he says “even if it 's some rudimentary version of these feelings and, again, why does rudimentariness even enter into it?” showing that we shouldn’t base whether or not we should treat them better based on what the pain level they feel. No matter what pain level is felt, from high to low, we should change what we are doing to accommodate the lobster. Through his prior knowledge and what he knew before, David Foster Wallace proves his point that lobsters do need to be treated better than they are at the moment. Using multitude of rhetorical strategies, David Foster Wallace proves that the way we treat animals is inhumane. His use of both ethos and pathos is incredibly convincing and shows how ingenious the essay really is. Also, his uses of metaphors really bring the audience into the perspective of the lobster. They make you truly mull over whether or not the way we treat animals that we kill is the real way we should be going about it. Every bit of detail in the essay really makes you consider the

Show More
Related

  • An Analysis Of Against Meat By Jonathan Safran Foer

    1009 Words  | 5 Pages

    Introduction In this article “Against Meat” (2009) Jonathan Safran Foer explains his experience from a young age until the present struggling whether being a vegetarian or an omnivore because he doesn’t want to hurt animals at the same time he can’t resist food because it tasted good. Jonathan Safran Foer is an American novelist (born February 21, 1977) He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in philosophy, in his freshman year he took a writing class from the novelist Joyce Carol.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Gary Steiner's Animal, Vegetable Mineral

    755 Words  | 4 Pages

    This short story explains and questions how people find eating animals morally acceptable. Steiner 's short story explains that whenever people think these animals are being treated respectfully they are being ignorant to the fact of how these animals are truly treated; Steiner brings up the fact of how an animals typical horrid life is and how it transitions from its horrid life to being killed by a butcher in a matter of seconds. Moreover, Steiner also adheres to the topic of how unacceptable, it is to kill these animals just for human consumption. Steiner 's purpose in writing this short story is to display to us the fact that eating any animal is not only wrong, but it is just downright unacceptable as it is mass murder of these innocent animals. Finally, Steiner tries to define at his best, what a strict vegan truly

    Read More

  • Foer Eating Animals Analysis

    732 Words  | 3 Pages

    Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals is a book about persuasion. Foer seeks to convince his readers to take any step in reducing what he believes is the injustice of harming animals. To achieve this, Foer employs many persuasion techniques and often changes his approach when he targets specific groups. His strategies include establishing himself as an ethical authority and appealing to his readers’ emotions, morals, and reason.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Nicholas Carr's Is Google Making USupid?

    850 Words  | 4 Pages

    I’m not thinking the way I used I think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading.” (Carr 557). This is an effective use of pathos because it draws the reader to question whether or not their way of thinking is changing as well. Carr is trying to create this connection, so the audience feels exactly what he is feeling and is successful at doing so.

    Read More

  • Jonathan Foer Let Them Eat Dog Rhetorical Analysis

    1521 Words  | 7 Pages

    In Jonathan Foer’s argumentative essay “Let Them Eat Dog”, he makes a very convincing argument for the consumption of dog, a surprising topic to argue for. However, when one reads through his excerpt, it’s quite difficult to escape the sound logic he utilizes throughout the piece. Ranging from commentary on the taste of dog meat to points about the ecological impact it would have if the U.S. started eating dog, Foer is persuasive and reasonable. So reasonable, in fact, that it begs the reader to question exactly why he would put so much effort into arguing for eating dog, something that most people won’t change their minds on no matter how logical the argument is. Foer even admits at the end of his essay that despite his best efforts, people

    Read More

  • Case For Reparation

    992 Words  | 4 Pages

    Pathos is a rhetorical device used for providing emotion to the reader. He wants the reader to feel sympathetic towards the mistreatment of African-Americans. In the introduction, the first rhetorical device he introduced is pathos. Coates present pathos when he introduced Clyde Ross. He titles the first chapter as, “So that’s just one of my losses”.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Consider The Lobster By David Foster Wallace

    996 Words  | 4 Pages

    The beginning of the essay, the tone and diction are both lighthearted and inconsequential- full of basic observations and details. As the argument progresses, the tone shifts to be much more serious, even the footnotes hold a more serious perspective and address more insightful issues. Even in the moments of sincerity, Wallace builds a place of non-threatening engagement, reassuring the audience that he is not an expert either and any decisions about the consumption of meat is an individual one. Such is evident in Footnote 14; Wallace explores the linguistic trends in naming food, then immediately identifies himself as a non-expert by restating that is is just a theory and asking about “biblio-historic reasons” that could unravel his whole

    Read More

  • Use Of Ethos In The Ballade Of Birmingham

    229 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the poem “Ballad of Birmingham’’ written by Dudley Randal, some fellow peers might disagree with his ways of figurative captivation that he uses about the tragic events displayed to his audience, but believe it or not, there might be a few reasons behind this occurrence- and why it may have surpassed us all. First and foremost, the author took advantage of the heartbreaker and tear-jolter of literature known as Pathos. Pathos is the element of persuasion that was used to make his readers understand the mother’s pain and placement of losing an innocent child; your innocent child.

    Read More

  • Thomas Paine's Use Of Ethos In The Crisis No. 1

    443 Words  | 2 Pages

    Afterwards he uses pathos in an effective way is when he brings back a parent’s feelings toward their children. This is

    Read More

  • Summary Of Escape From The Western Diet

    1739 Words  | 7 Pages

    As diets and health become more and more of a public concern in America. Two authors weigh in on their opinions on how the American public should handle the problem of obesity as well as their solutions to the overwhelming issue. In one article, “Against Meat,” published on the New York Times website in 2009, points out that the solution to obesity should be vegetarianism. Johnathan Foer who is a vegetarian, claims that his diet and way of living is his the way of improving health in the American public. Foer’s article provides a sense of humor as well as personal stories to attempt to persuade his audience for the ethical treatment of animals along with his personal solution for his own health and the health of his family.

    Read More

  • Consider The Lobster Analysis

    1527 Words  | 7 Pages

    On page 60, footnote 8 compares the pegging/banding of lobsters’ claws to the debeaking of broiler chickens, the cropping of swines’ tails, and the dehorning of cattle. Recognizing that the reader will likely fail to see the impact of the banding, Foster Wallace provides the comparison of other similar practices that will likely be more promptly deemed unacceptable. Under footnote 14, Foster Wallace extends the comparison, driving the reader to understand the distinction made between the consumption of mammals and non-mammals that is notable in speech. When describing mammals as food, we use separate words to distinguish them as creatures and dishes, such as “cow” and “beef,” and “pig” and “pork.” However, non-mammals share the same names in the wild and on menus, such as “shrimp,” “salmon,” and “lobster.”

    Read More

  • The Monster And Exile In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    672 Words  | 3 Pages

    This time spent here helped to begin to develop the creature’s mind, proving he was in fact rather intelligent. The monster knew that he was different from these people, often describing them all as beautiful. He knew they would not accept him, and yet his search for belonging and family continue to surge the novel forward. While the creature is lonely and hurting, his actions slowly become malicious.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of David Wallace's 'Consider The Lobster'

    1736 Words  | 7 Pages

    The consumption of animal meat is highly accepted in today’s society, however, the methods, in which the animals are killed are sometimes questioned for their cruelty. David Wallace, in considering the Lobster, takes the readers to the Maine Lobster Festival, where the consumption of lobsters is exploited, and the festival's attendees celebrate these acts. However, the essay goes furthermore than narrating the lobster’s festival, because through sensory details, and different techniques, he makes the readers question society’s morality. By stressing the cruelty it takes boiling lobsters alive, Wallace is capable of creating a sense of awareness in society decisions that demonstrate their corrupted morality, and how it affects directly others (like lobsters)

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of Nightjohn

    950 Words  | 4 Pages

    Three examples of Gary Paulsen’s use of pathos are the following. One example is “All I know for a mammy is the one that raised me, old Delie, and she be the one who raises all the young. Breeders don’t get to keep their own babies…”(16). Another example, “Then the master he whipped her his own self with a rawhide whip cut from an old gin belt used on the cotton gin. Sometimes he doesn’t whip and makes a field hand do it and stands back with pistol in his belt and smiles.

    Read More

  • What Is Malcolm X's Tone In Learning To Read

    581 Words  | 3 Pages

    Analysis for Learning to Read by Malcolm X Malcolm X, who used X to signify his lost African tribal name, was an American Muslim minister and a human rights activist. He stated in his excerpt “Learning to Read” from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, “[People] will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade” (Learning to read, X,3). Malcolm X was kicked out of the school after 8th grade, and went to the prison. He learned how to read in the prison. Ever since then, he started to read books and think about the fate of black people’s.

    Read More

More about The Lobster's Use Of Pathos In David Foster Wallace

Open Document