Rhetorical Analysis Of David Foster Wallace, By David F. Wallace

In his essay Consider the Lobster, it’s apparent what David Foster Wallace is trying to tell his audience: we should really think about the lobster’s point of view before cooking and eating it. Wallace uses multiple rhetorical strategies to get his point across, including pathos and ethos. His essay is very good in how it gets its point across, and how it forces even the largest lobster consumers to truly contemplate how the lobster might react being boiled alive. 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. Wallace captures the use of pathos in his essay and uses it in a way that is incredibly convincing to the reader. For example, he compares the Maine Lobster Festival to how a Nebraska Beef Festival could be, stating, “at which part of the festivities is watching trucks pull up and the live cattle get driven down the ramp and slaughtered right there…” (Wallace 700). Playing off of people’s natural tendency to feel bad for the cattle, he shows that the killing of lobster is, in reality, no different than the killing of cattle, but we treat it much differently. We tend to think that lobsters are different because they are less human than cows are, and, maybe to make us feel better about our senseless killing of an animal,

“Build your own life...find your opportunity, and always be sexy.” The general claim made by Aston Kutcher’s in his speech at the Teen Choice Awards is that to be successful you have to make your own life, work hard, and be thoughtful. He uses ethos and rhetorical devices to support his claim. His purpose is to inform in order to be inspiring. He establishes a serious but casual tone for his audience of mostly teens.

Referred to as a “antislavery zealot” by some and as a “heroic hand” by others, John Brown was certainly one who stained history with blood. John Brown’s conduction of anti-slavery raids to fight “fire with fire”, triggered by his radical ways to fight the tyranny that was slavery,Brown impacted the whole country. During this time most anti-slavery supporters were peaceful and only tried to fight slavery “morally”, however John Brown lead many anti slavery raids his most famous and the one which he would have to pay with his life being, the Harpers Ferry Raid. The seizing of federal armory and arsenal with a group of men with just a mere hope of the local slave population helping him in order to reach success and create a nation wide effect failed miserably when the slavery population frightened did not join his raid. Captured, John Brown delivered one of the most enticing and alluring speech during his trial, his last speech, his address to the court in which he admits his actions in his “crusade” to fight slavery as well as patronizingly accepts his punishment without regret or remorse. In his speech he address one objection, being that if he was fighting on behalf of the rich, high class and those who supported and benefited from the tyrant slavery system,he would have been rewarded and praised instead of punished, proving that once again the tyrant, oppresing, racist and discriminating federal government was being run by bias men who aimed to keep the inhuman hierarchy

Everyone has an opinion when it comes to animals being killed and eaten. If a person agrees or not is completely their own opinion and will not be the focus of the essay. David Wallace’s essay “ Consider the Lobster,” is used to address perspectives of varying opinions while trying to persuade the reader. The author accomplishes this throughout the essay through the excellent use of multiple rhetorical techniques. Rhetorical devices such as ethos, lothos and pathos are all used in the essay to convey the author's opinion and try to convince the reader to choose a side.

After successfully introducing his position and preparing his audience to be more accepting of his views, Barry uses an analogy to humorously mock his own inexperience in the

Leading a meaningful life meant breaking away from the fear of criticism or rejection; conforming to society limits Illgunas’ definition of life. Illgunas’ suburban upbringing makes the danger of social conformity clear to him. Surrendering to society would consequently cause him to completely lose himself. After graduating from high school, Illgunas and his classmates follow the conventional path towards a higher education. Illgunas explains, “My high school class and I moved like a school of fish: we graduates were capable of going off on our own, in whatever direction we chose, but something demanded we all swim as one…” (6-7). Parallel to the claim Illgunas makes, graduates that do not attend college are stigmatized. Society has created a paradigm: after graduating high school, students should attend a traditional four year university, and then enter the “career world.” In Illgunas’ perspective, people in

Larry Watson, in Montana 1948, presents a story of a family that not only Wesley Hayden, as the sheriff of the town and the brother of the accused doctor, but the whole family struggles between the family loyalty and justice. Watson develops each character through own ethical dilemmas and the way they deal with those dilemmas. Since the novel starts with an unexpected event or secret of Uncle Frank, Watson organizes the whole novel in a fast and depressing rhythm. To make the novel more interesting to readers, Watson applies the rhetorical techniques such as symbol and parallelism to render the tense atmosphere and further expressed the characters’ inner mind.

Thaddeus Stevens gave a speech on September 6th, 1865 in which he advocated that the treatment of the captured southern states make use of the “extreme rights of war - ’to execute, to imprison, to confiscate.’ “ (Furman). Stevens sought to have the confederate states that were seized to establish governments that would be “republican in form and principles” (Furman) to better work with existing union government.

Animal cruelty is a worldwide problem rapidly growing in today’s society. Cruelty means inflicting pain and causing suffering. In the essay, “Consider the Lobster,” by David Foster Wallace the main point that comes out is the animal cruelty. Wallace aims to persuade the reader into considering whether consuming and food preparation causes pain to the animals that people consume. Wallace gives a brief description about the origin of lobsters, and eventually the cruel ways in which the lobsters are prepared and consumed provides overall logical details from many different sources. Wallace presents his argument by using three rhetorical strategies ethos, pathos, and logos. The effective uses of rhetorical devices make it easier to persuade his

George Will appeals to the use of logos by using logic and information to back up what he is stating. At the end of the article George Will states that The United States, China, Russia, and India hold 60 percent of the world’s coal this is already a very large percentage and will continue to grow as an Australian company plans to build the Cowlitz facility and another company signed a contract to give China Australian coal. By stating these facts he is able to get across the point that this much coal is not good for the world as there is already an estimated 6 billion tons being burned.

“Consider the Lobster” is an article written by David Foster Wallace that describes his account of the Maine Lobster Festival and his research and thoughts on the lobster and the ethics of eating them. In the article, Wallace provides numerous scientific points that put the moral aspects of eating lobster into question. Through this he appeals to his audience’s emotions and makes them doubt their own beliefs about the food they eat. In “Consider the Lobster”, David Foster Wallace uses the rhetorical devices logos and pathos to successfully lead his audience to question the morality of eating lobster.

In Joel Stein's article "The New Greatest Generation", he attempts to prove that millennials will save society. Stein presents his counterargument first to interest readers then concludes his article with his

That the ability to shirk off all of our initial views and consider what we see to find the truth provides a more wholesome experience. Wallace admits that taking that lifestyle is a difficult one and he himself struggles with it. He claims that there is no way of teaching someone how to challenge themselves and it's a matter of ‘learning how to think’. That we have to adjust our world view in a way that fits the life that we want to be a part of. In other words, it's a constant goal to better

On October 15, 2017, Rodney Walker gave a presentation on “The Power of Perseverance: From 12 Foster Homes to Harvard University.” This presentation was given at the Zlock Performing Arts Center at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, PA in front of about one hundred people ranging from high school and college students to educators. The presentation was on Rodney Walker’s life story of how he grew up in a violent Southside Chicago neighborhood and lived in many foster homes, but through perseverance and mentorship, he became highly determined and strong. During the presentation I was critiquing his public speaking, but not in the context of what he was talking about, but rather about how he spoke to the audience. I found some good

The audience of the speech is the sophomores of the DC High School. That means that she needs to keep the speech relatively simple, as her audience isn’t very old. As mentioned earlier the speech was held during an educational event. That is the circumstance of the speech and under that she addresses the topic education. The purpose of the speech is to motivate the students to continue their education when they have finished high school in order to succeed later in life.