In “Consider the Lobster,” David Foster Wallace reveals how consumerism affects our daily lives. For example he writes, “Try to imagine a Nebraska Beef Festival at which part of the festivities is watching the trucks pull up and the live cattle get driven down the ramp and slaughtered right there on the World’s Largest Killing Floor or something- there’s no way.” This call to action forces the reader to realize that a life is a life- no matter what animal. Besides that, Wallace also creates this parody to reveal how the mechanics of consumerism has brainwashed us to the point where we forget that we are even killing millions in the first place. In our minds, certain animals are food and certain animals are companions. However, Wallace’s piece questions why we tend to categorize animals into either being slaughtered or saved and our morals behind society's actions.
After reading this piece, I really started to question what kind of food I eat and even my own morals behind my actions. Therefore, I started to research how and why animals are born, raised, tortured, and ultimately murdered everyday. The results are, to say the least, terrifying.
Although my heart was in my stomach throughout this whole video, it reveals the harsh reality of the system that our food comes from. This video forced me to realize that the food on my plate is not beef- it is a cow. The worst part of watching this video was realizing that I, myself, is part of the same system. Although I may not be the person killing the cow, I still played a part of the murder just by eating it. Even more though, I have been raised in this society where food isn’t valued as greatly as it should be. In my family, we often throw food away, make too much, or eat it to the point where we are sickly full. All of these actions disregard the life that was taken for our meal. Ultimately because we know there will always be more at the grocery store. Thus, this vicious cycle of consumerism entraps us to the point where we think of the murdered animal on our plate as just another grocery item.
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