Rachel Martin 

Professor Miller 

Project #2

28 March 2023

Title 

Do lobsters feel pain when they are being boiled alive? Do they understand what is happening to them when they are boiling in someone’s pot? As a society, have we sugarcoated reality enough to the point where we have no remorse or respect for other living creatures? In Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace, Wallace discusses lobsters and if they are sentient or not. 

Sentience defined by Merriam Webster is a “feeling or sensation as distinguished from perception and thought.” It has been debated if lobsters are sentient or not. According to the Animal Welfare Sentience Bill, “lobsters, octopus and crabs and all other decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs” have been recognized as being sentient creatures (Gov.uk). Without this reassurance, would people continue to boil these creatures alive, not knowing that they are conscious? Or even yet, will people continue to boil them even with the assurance? 

The first time I ever read David Foster Wallace’s piece, “Consider the Lobster,” I was a bit uncomfortable, as were most people. For those who have never thought about or “considered” a subject like that, it can be sort of a sore subject. At first, I was upset that I never considered this before. Whenever my family cooked lobster, I hadn’t stopped to think about what that meant for the lobster. As I read for a second time though, I just got increasingly more frustrated. I was frustrated at the fact that boiling lobsters alive was a normalized occurrence. Knowing that these creatures are sentient and can consciously feel what is being done to them should make people rethink how they want to cook their surf and turf meal that day. But, the lobsters could just be a mask for a larger theme in this reading. 

Was Wallace only writing about lobsters, or did he want to insert a larger, hidden message in “Consider the Lobster?” In my opinion, the lobsters were just scratching the surface of how animal processing has been sugarcoated by society. People buy meat from their local supermarket every day, but do they ever think about the meat that ended up there?