Something Interesting

     The question had come up during discussion of The Lobster. I was sitting outside of the circle listening to what others had to say when it came up. It was, "Why did the author use Lobsters as the main animal and not some other animal?" My first thought was that it was probably some random animal that the author liked. Then I remembered that nothing in literature is random. That everything was picked for a reason. Therefore, this author had picked the lobster as his character for a reason.
     As we got deeper into the discussion, some people suggested that lobsters reminded the author of humans. This made sense, at the end of the poem the author compares the world boiling from the original boiling pot of water for the lobster. The author had also compared the physical characteristics of the lobster to human characteristics such as a bruise. The lobster is also most of the time portrayed as a very violent creature with their claws and such, but with them "pegged shut" all they are able to do is "waver their claws slowly and vaguely". They have dreams to go back home, but those are also taken away when they are "dropped" into a pot of boiling water. Humans can also be vulnerable when we have our main line of defence, and our dreams taken away, just as the lobster does. But there is still part of the question that is left unanswered, and it may be that only the author can answer it completely.