Free The Truth About Celebrated Maine Lobster Festival Literature Review Sample

Wallace (2004) in his article entitled “Consider the Lobster” described in detail how the Maine Lobster Festival is celebrated for more than 50 years. The main feature of the festival is showcasing the various ways of cooking lobster. The highly marketed festival consumes more than 25,000 pounds of freshly caught lobster just after the preparations. In the midst of the lobster tourism along with the attraction of the sun and fun, Wallace pointed out the truth about the mouth-watering lobster. After introducing where the marine specie came from, he went on saying that the lobster is actually a sea scavenger. He stated:

“Like many other species of benthic carnivore, lobsters are both hunters and scavengers” (Wallace, 2004).

Wallace continued explaining that these creatures are giant sea insects that feed on dead stuff aside from preying on smaller creatures. He even traced history that lobsters were considered as the food for the poor as it was significantly abundant in Maine. Today, it has become a status symbol for the rich as it is just slightly cheaper than caviar. Lastly, the writer dwelled on the morality issues of killing lobsters by citing the protests of animal rights activists, PETA and also the scientific opinions that lobsters neurologically do not feel pain. Wallace ended his article by saying that the Maine Lobster Festival will still be the most celebrated food festival as long as Americans will not despise lobster for being a sea scavenger and will not adhere to the moral issues raised in killing and eating lobsters.
Personally, Wallace’s points are weak especially when he dwelled on whether or not lobsters feel pain when they are boiled alive. People who love sea food will not care if lobsters feel the excruciating pain when they are cooked. His point on lobster as a sea scavenger should have been explained thoroughly especially that the sea is getting dirtier as time passes. If I were Wallace, I should have dwelled on how the lobster festival affects the number of lobster caught every year and how the volume of non-biodegradable wastes affects Maine’s environment and its biodiversity. Excessive catching of lobster will definitely cause the decline of lobster population annually. This issue will not only catch the interest of PETA or any other animal lovers but even those who eat seafood as it will affect the future catch of lobsters in the area.
Moreover, Wallace pointed out how voluminous are the non-biodegradable wastes thrown by the more than 80,000 festival goers. However, he did not go deeper on the issue of where the volumes of garbage are being thrown and if there are toxic wastes indiscriminately thrown into the sea. This is an interesting issue considering the huge number of people every year. Toxic contamination of the sea like many other cases in the world will cause not only the lobster but all sea creatures to flee and seek refuge to other cleaner parts of the sea. Worst, the sea creatures might mutate like the case of Puget Sound. In return, the pollution will also be eaten by human beings because people normally feed on marine resources except vegetarian and animal right activists.
My point is, order to make the article more powerful, it was better to highlight on the relationship of the environment and the food we eat. By citing the activities and the consequences in the Maine Lobster Festival, people especially those from Maine will be the ones to act first to preserve the bio-diversity of their environment before the lobsters will flee and before they are left with nothing to eat.

Works Cited

Wallace, David Foster. “Consider the Lobster.” Gourmet, Aug. 2004. Web. 2 Feb. 2015.