Rhetorical Strategies in David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

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Rhetorical Strategies in David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster and Other Essays is not only intriguing, but also funny and informative. The essay focuses on the inhumanities of eating a big, butter soaked and delicious lobster. The author was communicating to readers of the Goumet magazine who always give less thought about what they eat. Wallace (2007) discusses everything, from fishing of the lobster, storage in supermarkets, cooking, and consumption of the lobster. In order to build such an extensive discussion, the author used several literary devices. For instance, the author greatly applied diction in order to create tone in the story. Apart from diction, the author also used rhetorical questions and imagery to build the story. Even though the story Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Wallace uses different literary devices, diction, rhetorical questions, and imagery are the main literary styles used by the author.
To begin with, diction could be elucidated as a style of speaking or writing determined by the choice of words of a speaker or a writer. Diction or choice of words separates good writing from bad writing. From the definition of diction, it can be deduced that David Foster Wallace used the literary device in Consider the Lobster and Other Essays. The literary device was particularly evident when the author mentioned
“The lobster will sometimes cling to the container’s sides or even to hook its claws over the kettle’s rim like a person trying to keep from going over the edge of a roof.(..)You can usually hear the cover rattling and clanking as the lobster tries to push it off. Or the creature’s claws scraping the sides of the kettle as it trashes around.’ (Wallace, Pg. 245).
Apparently, the choice, order, tone, and sound of words in the above excerpt all point to the use of diction. The author uses the literary device to create emotions and communicate fear. As evidence, reading the excerpt informs the reader that lobsters feel pain when cooked. It also communicates that lobsters are fearful when cooked. This enables the author to involve readers by appealing to their emotion hence make the text interesting.
A rhetorical question is a question that does not require an answer but is purposely intended to stir up thoughts in the reader’s mind. It follows that, rhetorical questions have a greater effect on the reader than the ...