...Although David Foster Wallace claims that he isn’t making his article Consider the Lobster an argument about morality, I believe that is his main intention. While I will admit that he does an excellent job explaining the viewpoints from both humans and lobsters, is it really necessary for him to explain the viewpoint of the lobsters? Wallace is trying to guilt us into thinking how we treat lobsters is morally wrong. Mother nature made us higher up on the food chain, so there is no need to feel guilty about something we are eating as a mechanism for survival. David Foster Wallace provides valid points regarding morality in his essay Consider the Lobster, however because it was assigned for college students to read, his argument is portrayed as unimportant and unnecessary to the audience. The whole purpose of Wallace’s essay was to make the reader think about morality and how people should put more thought into our decision making process. Although he’s asking directly whether or not we should consider the feelings of the lobster when we eat it, the bigger picture questions our ability to process all the little details when making decisions in life. The longer it takes for someone to make a decision the worst the outcome is going to be, because the thought of doubt enters your mind. So, why should we waste our time thinking about what we should or shouldn’t eat when we all have more important things to worry about? Wallace opens up his essay describing the scene of...
Words: 1096 - Pages: 5
...“This is Water” Close Reading Analysis: The Fluidity of Life “This is Water,” written by David Foster Wallace, is a commencement address he gave to a graduating college class in 2005. In this text, Wallace uses water as a symbol for life. As a result of water referring to life, the theme of “This is Water” is the fluidity of life. He shows this to his audience through short stories within his speech. Wallace begins his address with a story about fish. It is mainly about three fish, two young and one old. The two younger ones do not realize they are swimming in water when the older fish asks them “how’s the water” (Wallace X)? They do not know they are submerged in water because they are young and inexperienced: they have not practiced everything...
Words: 473 - Pages: 2
...short story, “Hills Like White Elephants”, a man, referred to as “the American”, and a girl, Jig, sip on drinks at a train station as they talk of whether or not to have an abortion. David Foster Wallace’s short story, “Good People”, portrays a story line similar to Hemingway’s and follows the tumultuous thoughts of nineteen-year-old Lane Dean Jr. as he sits on a bench in quiet with his, equally submersed in thought, pregnant girlfriend Sheri. Writer Nilofer Hashmi asserts in her analytical essay, “’Hills Like White Elephants’: The Jilting of Jig,” that in Ernest Hemingway’s story the girl will go through with the abortion, but the American leaving her. Evidence exists, however, to prove that Jig will in fact have the abortion and the American will stay. Similarly, but entirely contrasting to Hashmi’s assertion, “Good People” insinuates that Lane will ultimately stay with Sheri should she fulfill his predictions and tell him she will raise the baby. Aspects such as whether or not love exists between the couples, the difference between Foster Wallace’s and Hemingway’s depiction and portrayal of the males and females, and symbolism disprove Hashmi’s analysis in favor of the previously proposed scenarios. Whether or not the relationship contains any sort of love separates Hemingway and Foster Wallace’s short stories. Love does not exist between the American and the girl in “Hills Like White Elephants”. Hashmi correctly proposes that Jig, who believes the American will stay...
Words: 2210 - Pages: 9
...Every day, millions of people around the world, use a means of transportation to go from their homes to their place of occupation or enjoyment. Sometimes people just follow the same patterns day after day from when they wake up in the morning too when they go to sleep, with no other change in daily activity other than their food choices. People make these choices to better suit their lives and help pave their future. Why do people move from place to place so frequently? Or better yet, people should be asking them selves, “Why do we travel”? In two separate reading pieces this semester, Michael Lipschutz noticed a strange connection in the motivation behind people’s reason to travel in the novel “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed, and the essay “A Supposedly...
Words: 774 - Pages: 4
...In his adventurous experiences to Masafuera, Chile, foretelling speeches to college students, and emotional letters to best friend David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen’s essays in Farther Away delve into personal experiences that take a deeply haunting stance on a vast number of modern societal issues. He claims that hopeless isolation clouds individuals in their search for meaning, further perpetuated by the increasing dependency and materialistic pursuit of technology and consumeristic goods. However, in all this, Franzen remains optimistic as he reveals hopeful possibilities for authentic connections through the bonds he forms with birds. The interaction between hopeless isolation and the yearning for authentic connections produces a profound internal conflict within the individual. What is to resolve this battle? Ultimately, Franzen believes that this interminable isolation is cured through the intertwined processes of reading and writing. Isolation is a focal concept in Franzen’s work that he elucidates through his personal history. On a drive back to St. Louis from Minneapolis, Franzen recounts his past: he had just “spent an outstandingly fun week” with his cousins, but loathed his return to his home, back to isolation (“Our Little Planet” 273). His home was the “quiet, dark, air-conditioned house”, and his cousin’s home was “the convivial planet” (“Our Little Planet” 274). Coincidentally, the historical landing of the Apollo 11 occurs on the same day, leading Franzen...
Words: 2417 - Pages: 10
...In David Foster Wallace’s speech This is Water, he puts a focus upon the gravity that adulthood is going to bring and that “everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight” will be vital in the years to come. In Joyce Carol Oates’ Heat a narrator reverts back to a time in childhood when two neighborhood twins were killed, awakening her to how real violence is in reality. Both of these stories build off a reflection standpoint that connect and divide them equally. While both stories can connect to each other through the fact of understanding life, figuring out morals and that hardships are real, the This is Water speech focuses on how to get past yourself and on with life while Heat takes a focus on being stuck remembering and questioning oneself based on the past Getting...
Words: 1051 - Pages: 5
...When I first read a short story of David Foster Wallace, titled “Good People”, I did not understand any meanings behind it. The story only involved very few physical movements, but more on main character, Lane A. Dean, Jr.’s internal conflicts. The story happened beside a lake, where the main characters, Lane and his girlfriend, Sheri Fisher sat and tried to figure out a way to deal with pregnancy. There are no dialogues happened in whole story, the place does not change as well. However, when I read this story again and again, I could always learn something new from it after each time I read. The external plot may be dull, but the internal plot, which is inner thoughts of Lane is well-written and full of rich meanings. Though it is a short story, Wallace skillfully applied elements of fictions, plot, setting, symbolism and theme to form a luxury recipe, which greatly contributed to the meaning of Good People. Wallace focused on internal plot of Good People that thoughtfully explained the mental struggles of Lane that he narrated by a third person omniscient point of view. Such point of view is a perfect match for this story because it helps reader to understand the story frame faster. More importantly, third person create a distance from characters and their thoughts, so that reader can have more space to analyze but not affect too much by characters. For the first time reading, I did not know what the story is about. Until the very last paragraphs, a few words mentioned about...
Words: 1771 - Pages: 8
...“Consider the Lobster”, by David Foster Wallace, is an informative review for Gourmet Magazine. The article is focused on the Maine Lobster Festival, where people from all over the country come to enjoy this fun-filled festival with thousands of pounds of lobster. However, Wallace describes the reality of this festival: long lines, noisy families, and foul smells. He also goes into immense detail about the preparation, taste, and anatomy of lobsters. As a well-known writer, Wallace tries to encourage people to think outside of their default setting and realize that not everything is about them, as shown in “Consider the Lobster”. Wallace brings to light the morality of boiling the lobsters alive and whether our treatment of any animal is justified by our cravings for the most delicious dish. In the final paragraphs of the article, he uses strong diction, strategic questions, and critical tone to encourage readers to take a moment and think about their morals. Wallace uses strategic diction, using words such as “curious” and “confused” as to why people are so ignorant and selfish because they “like to eat certain...
Words: 656 - Pages: 3
...David Foster Wallace, the author of the commencement speech for the graduating students of Kenyon College in 2005, entertained the audience and kept them intrigued throughout the entire speech by using grim extremes, opposites, telling stories that the audience could relate too, and using his phrase “Capital-T Truth”. Wallace's point was to not live life with a “blind certainty, a close mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn't even know he's locked up”, because that is not living, that is being a robot who follows commands programmed into its’ hard drive. In the middle of his speech, Wallace ends up talking about suicide, specifically shooting one’s self in the head. The audience was sure to perk back up again if they had started to nod off. Suicide is a very grim subject, and people become interested when the word comes up. Wallace talks about how adults that commit suicide have already been dead long before the bullet pierces the skull. Their brain has started to run on auto-pilot and they don't actually think for themselves. Unfortunately, on September 12, 2008, Wallace has had the personal experience of suicide as well. His wife had come home and found that her husband had hung himself. Perhaps he personally knew what the suicides were thinking before killing themselves. On a brighter note, Wallace does a great job of telling stories in his speech; stories that the audience could relate too. By audience, I do not just...
Words: 675 - Pages: 3
...because before this he was an excellent boy. It all started after he met a teenage boy who was very nice to him. Jamie became attracted to this boy because he had brought him to many fun places including the arcade. Jamie was not able to realize that skipping school was a bad thing because he was still young and could easily be influenced by others. That is why Jamie had been skipping school recently. With many bad influence from people and media, incidents like these tend to occur very often. For instance, how people get bad influence from the Internet. Nowadays, with modern technologies, we can communicate with other people effortlessly even to the people who are strangers to us. This is a very powerful threat to families with young children because they are very vulnerable to these kind of things. Young children tend to blindly follow whatever they think is right to them and this will increase the number of child delinquency. That’s why people mainly young children need good role models to provide them with a good example. For instance, David Foster Wallace mentioned in his 2005 Kenyon Commencement Speech, “That is freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think” (59). From this statement, I believe that the real value of education is to learn how to think, and this can be done by choosing the right role model. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, role model is defined as a person that you admire and try to copy. It does not mention about whether...
Words: 2120 - Pages: 9
...value when you actually do. In David Foster Wallace’s speech, “This is Water,” he brings out the reality we live in day to day that people ignore preventing us from seeing what we control. James Baldwin comes to a conclusion similar to Wallace in his essay, “Notes of a Native Son” when he realizes it’s his choice on how to perceive and act in society to either make change or let society stagnate. Both these works show that people have control over social circumstances that seem like there is no choice but expresses this point in their respective points of view and examples. Both...
Words: 1110 - Pages: 5
...however, when departing university, the best advice is given in preparation for adulthood. Mary Schmich’s ‘Wear Sunscreen’ (1997) and David Foster Wallace’s ‘This is Water’ (2009) are both unconventional commencement speeches which as a result have caused these speeches to gain great popularity. Despite these similarities, they both have different ways of presenting their non-traditional advice. Schmich conveys multiple points of life advice in a very concise way, whereas Wallace focus’ on the importance of the paying attention and learning how to think. This comparison of ‘Wear Sunscreen’ and ‘This is Water’, shows that audiences can have very positive reactions by bending a speech...
Words: 833 - Pages: 4
...David Foster Wallace’s view on ‘This is Water’ helps us look around, open our eyes, and see the world from a fresh perspective. He started off by stating the fish analogy. It begins with two young fishes swimming and a big fish passed by saying to them, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” and the two young fishes look at one another and goes “What the hell is water?” This is an example that shows us how unaware we become to our surroundings. Too often, we live in our own bubble and think we’re not affecting the environment around us. However, the truth of the matter is, the way we think will determine the consequences of our actions, whether it’s negative or positive. It’s human nature for people to automatically think about themselves first. For example, when you’re waiting in line and end up getting frustrated in the end, it’s hard to be reasonable and think...
Words: 634 - Pages: 3
...Why Learn? Students go to school five times a week, why? Why do so many people waste their time to educate kids? The answer is that they do it because education is supposed to make sure that students have a good future ahead of them and when they grow up, they are able to contribute to the world rather than being a liability. It is supposed to make sure that students survive in the real world by good means and take the world a step closer to being perfect. Education is like a loan, it loans knowledge to the students for life, which they are expected to pay back by contributing to the world when they grow up. But for most of the students that loan is not paid back. They grow up to live a normal or harsh life. Many of them stick to their...
Words: 930 - Pages: 4
...The hedonic treadmill and our “default setting” taking over Although some people believe it is good to be on the hedonic treadmill and live in our “default setting”, we cannot truly be happy if we continue on these paths. Because of this we should remove ourselves from it. Happiness should not be created by material items, nor should we be in this “default setting”. In order for people to be happier we need to be the “action” in our lives to change things. Happiness is not something that should be created off of material items, and, therefore, we should remove ourselves from the hedonic treadmill that has been placed in front of us to create the sense of happiness. The concept of the hedonic treadmill is “he supposed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness[->0] despite major positive or negative events or life changes” (Wikipedia). True happiness cannot be obtained through material items, nor can it be a feeling a person has. In our society today, we are letting material items shape our world and we are missing what true happiness is. Pianalto states that happiness is not something that is achieved through material items and “if you are pursuing the wrong kinds of things, it doesn’t matter that attaining them make you feel happy” (Pianalto). This is the whole concept of the hedonic treadmill we have been on. We are not looking anymore for any true happiness. We are just looking for the next material item that will make us...
Words: 791 - Pages: 4
