Consider The Lobster Analysis

One of the most controversial writers of the last two decades is American author David Foster Wallace. Critically acclaimed, DFW is well received amongst critics, who commend his meticulous writing style, and his vast and usually alien vocabulary. One such books which received numerous critical plaudits was Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays, published in 2005. According to author David Lipsky: “If I had to give an alien one book about American life, I'd hand over Consider the Lobster.”

DFW is not your archetypal hippie writer; he has a flair for the odd, a passion to explore the unspoken, and acute observational skills. His unpredictability is sampled in his book, with the first essay, Big Red Son, which is an informal disquisition on

Yet, there is wisdom in DFW’s wacky views. Writing from a professorial perspective, he writes in a style empathetic towards students, skeptical towards the American education system, while being upset about American limitations on humor. He notes how American humor is purely for amusement and relaxation, and that humor has become an escape mechanism in contemporary society and art. He jokes that regular American humor almost only comprises of “Precocious children/ profane grandparents/ cynically insurgent coworkers” (Wallace 63). What he wishes to convey is that students don't see humor as a way to engage with and challenge society or oneself, but as an escape from the knowledge that comes with becoming an adult. Since Kafka’s funniness is a conglomeration of both comedy and inevitable tragedy, he finds it harder to teach, as students are conditioned to view comedy as a getaway from seriousness when tragedy is entangled with it, students can’t find a way to maintain the equilibrium required to fully grasp what Kafka tries to convey. He believes that the American education system wants students to strive to want to be something, that they put in a whole lot of effort to get there, only to realize that

He displays his uncompromisingly forthright side in his essays Certainly the End of Something or Other, and How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart. He daringly challenges the much revered American author John Updike. DFW, though a fan of Updike, despises Updike’s Toward the End of Time as he is annoyed by the indifference in Updike’s works. DFW feels that Updike’s similar protagonists all reflect Updike’s own personal flaws and convictions. DFW also notes his disappointment in the climax, as Updike forces the reader to believe that the prostate operation which renders the narrator impotent is a tragedy, which DFW clearly disagrees with. In sum, DFW feels that Updike shoves his thoughts into the readers’ minds, and doesn’t give room for further contemplation, and also that Updike is personally incapable of accepting disagreement/ any variation in opinion other than his. Writing about tennis star Tracy Austin’s biography, he offers a scathing review of her autobiography, extending into a general critique of the mass-produced ghostwritten sports autobiographies flooding the market. This reflects DFW’s fearlessness when it comes to broadcasting his uncommon and rather tenacious feelings on otherwise admired