TOW #11 First Half of Wallace's Consider the Lobster

When considering what Wallace's purpose is in writing the first two essays of his text Consider the Lobster, it is important to realize that they're necessarily twofold.
In the first text, for which the book is named, Foster Wallace offers up an examination of the Maine Lobster Festival, an event that draws thousands each year in a communal quest to consume some of the best lobster that money can buy. It is important to note that this piece wasn't written for the text it is contained in, but rather was taken from a 2002  issue of Gourmet magazine, where Wallace was a writer at the time. What begins as a review of the various attractions, the type of lobsters available to festival-goers, and the history of the event, quickly becomes a discussion on the morality of the festival,  and eventually dissolves into a sort of plea by Wallace to, as the title suggests, consider the lobsters. Wallace details how the lobsters are caught, transported, and eventually killed for the festival. In one section, Wallace describes in particular detail the killing of the lobsters. ‘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 thrashes around." In this way, the author seeks to offer up a criticism of the festival, and perhaps invoke the reader to question the morality of the event, and the systematic killing of sea creatures, as a whole.
In understanding Wallace's varied purpose, it is necessary to understand that his audience is equally varied. While Gourmet magazine would seem to obviously be directed towards food lovers, chefs, and others who devote much of their free time to food, the article also makes an appeal to animal rights activists, and perhaps scientists as well, who would be compelled to answer Wallace's questions regarding the nature of lobster killing. This variation among the audience plays a significant role in the style of rhetoric used by Wallace.
Wallace's rhetoric can perhaps best be understood as a sort of give-and-take between a cheerful, minutae-laden description of a famous lobster festival, and an ominous moral discussion on the nature of killing animals. In this way, Wallace favors two distinct styles of rhetoric as a way to keep each of these sections distinct, and capitalize on the impact of each. When praising the event, Wallace keeps the focus on aspects of the event that one might need to know to attend. Things like specific stands that he enjoyed, parking spaces, and local points of interest are all aimed towards potential festival attendees, and do much to lighten what is an otherwise ominous piece. During his more morally-inclined discussion points, Wallace favors morose descriptions of the lobster killings, and other details meant to potentially disgust the reader. He also makes use of a number of open-ended questions, mostly regarding the common belief that lobsters and other crustaceans don't feel pain. These are designed to intrigue the scientists among Wallace's audience, and also act as a means for the reader to arrive at their own conclusions regarding the morality of lobster killings for an event like the Maine lobster festival. Overall, these two rhetorical styles do much to aid the purpose of Wallace's discussion, as he is successfully able to appeal directly to two distinct audiences, and potentially act as a persuasive device, as he is able to show potential festival-goers the truly brutal nature of the festivities. In this sense, Wallace is successful in accomplishing his purpose(s).