The first article I read was Errol Morris' three part blog post Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? Morris' blog post focuses on two photographs taken by Roger Fenton the war photographer. These pictures were taken at the Crimean War at the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The article questioned whether these photos were authentic and taken at the time of the specific event or if they were staged in order to make this picture. Some questioned which came first? What the feelings were behind these two pictures? Morris not only visited the site for some insight on the pictures, but he also spoke to historians that were familiar to the war, which provided more information on the where it was taken and when. He also spoke to a forensic photographer to analyze these pictures.
The second article I read was David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster. I found this article interesting because of he knowledge I gained about not only the lobster festival that I did not know existed but more about them scientifically while learning how to cook them. He focuses on the event itself and how some people may view it. Before letting you know very little about the event he mentions the history of the lobster and how it differs from now. For example, in the 1800s it was considered low-class food eaten by the poor and institutionalized. There were even some laws that were against feeding them to inmates more than once a week. This was because it was considered cruel and unusual. They compared it to the idea of feeding people rats. Wallace made it a goal to make sure his audience understood that during these festivals they feed the people freshly made lobster and being freshly made meant to cook them alive and serve. He tries to hit an emotional spot when he mentions the torture or pain we don't think about that the lobster experiencing and compares it to humans being stuck in a tank whole people watch them boil and die. This was a part of the event that was considered the entertainment, watching the lobsters cook in a tank, while some may call it cruel. Have you ever thought about it that way?
Both Wallace and Morris made sure to back up their articles with a variety of sources. Their ambition and focused stood out to me strongly in these articles. The determination was not a question when it came to these two. Besides the fact that it was long so you knew they had a lot of to say they made sure they did it in different ways. Wallace attended the Maine Lobster Festival, experienced for himself what it was like, and interviewed people who have attended the festival before as well as that year for the first time. On the other hand, Morris contacted people who might have been to that particular spot and in the war in order to discover if there was any truth in the picture that was taken. He visited the site and imagined what took place at that particular moment. Yes, both of these articles found out some kind of information to their questions about these events, but that did not stop them from continuing or gathering more information about it. They took the time to compare and contrast different views, which helped their pieces not seem one-sided and allowed their audience to have a sense of control over how they felt about the topics. Some people could think that the festival was cruel or entertaining while some may think that the photos were staged or left alone and taken at the scene as is.
After reading and analyzing both articles I've found that in order to make a article more interesting or believable one must take their audience into consideration. I loved that both these articles did their research and covered all possibilities of the truth in their events. Although Morris had pictures of the Crimean War at the Valley of the Shadow of Death to do research on its still as effective as Wallace's sources of information in Consider the Lobster about the Maine Lobster Festival by attending and interviewing as well as observing at the event. I now have gained another perspective on my writing and how to improve and completely my work effectively. Would you go as far as they did to get to the truth?!
Works Cited
Morris, Errol. "Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? (Part One)." Opinionator. 25 Sept. 2007. Web. 01 Feb. 2014.
Wallace, David Foster. "Consider the Lobster." : 2000s Archive : Gourmet.com. Gourmet, Aug. 2004. Web. 01 Feb. 2014.