Reading+Responses

This book is aimed at American consumers (probably ignorant ones like myself who have no idea what crap they are putting into themselves on a daily basis. The book introduces the idea of fast food chains and their impact on people om society, as well as their regression over time. Eric Schlosser appeals to logos regarding the fast food industry and its expansion today. He uses testimony of real people like Carl N. Karcher, a small business owner, who works on a farm and talks about competition with big chain restaurants. The development of factory-made food in assembly line style can end up hurting small businesses such as Carl's. From the reading, it becomes evident that in America today, chains like Taco Bell, KFC, McDonald's and others are beating out the small businesses, and often times the fast food industries are not providing healthy foods for the consumers that are so often buying food from them. Money seems to be the most important thing in the world today, particularly in America, where people working in or running the food industries don't care what kind of unhealthy or harmful thing they are giving to consumers as long as their numbers are up. Money is directly linked to food in America.
 * __Fast Food Nation Ch. 1: __**

__Fast Food Nation Ch. 5: __
Chapter 5 of Fast Food Nation focuses on awareness, and making the audience (ignorant American consumers) know what exactly they are putting into their bodies and ingesting each time they drive up to McDonald's and order something. Fast food places "enhance" their food with harmful ingredients. For example, in everyday french fries you would perhaps go get at McDonald's or Burger King, there are tons of "artificial" flavors and colors and who knows what else. Fast food restaurants hardly ever have natural ingredients. The tone of the chapter is sarcastic and disgusted. I think the intent of the author was to evoke a disgust within the reader also, to perhaps make them realize that the food industries do not care about them, just making a profit, and beating out competition from other fast food places, and if that means producing disgusting food with unnatural ingredients, then so be it. Personally, I think it's gross that so much fat and processed ingredients are put into food such as french fries, and yet we (i also do this) just continue to eat them. I am fully aware of how gross fast food is, and i still eat it. I find it interesting.

=__**"Ghosts of Tastes:"**__ = Edna O'Brien recollects memories of food and how the role of food changes in a person's life such as her own over time. She uses emotional appeal as well as ethos, when she uses her own testimony to touch the reader's hearts, and let them believe she knows what shes talking about when it comes to food and sentiment. She utilizes personification when she says "touch has memory, taste has more so." O'Brien uses description, emotion, and rhetorical techniques such as personification to compare feelings and memories to taste of food. This text showed a different view on food, a more deep and connected one. It is always a nice thing to see completely contrasting ideas about the same topic, such as between //Ghosts of Tastes// and //Fast Food Nation// where the author talks about the role of food in life to be deadly and negative in one, and nostalgic and awesome in the other.

=__"Queen of Mold:"__ = This piece by Ruth Reichl emphasizes the emotional aspect of food, and the sentimental feelings it can create. It shows that the way a person interacts with food can reveal who they are as a person, how they view the world, and how they view others. This memoir type essay begins with an account of Reichl's mother, who always had some kind of food-related experiment to try on the household, causing utter disgust and embarrassment among the other members of the family in front of guests. The memory includes a humorous tone from the author and descriptive language used to emphasize the crazy antics of her mother in the kitchen. Comparisons are made throughout the text in order to provide a comical image in the readers mind of all the twisted recipes that took place in the household. Though the piece is funny, I think there is a deeper message within it, that food can connect members of a family and make a close knit bond, even if it's in the most ironic way, which I think is what we see in Reichl's essay. It is ironic that the father treats the mother and her cooking so lovingly and appreciatively and that the kids enjoyed so much watching their mother cook despite being so embarrassed of her. The essay brings about the idea of loving your family unconditionally and appreciating them for who they are, instead of trying to change them, because the abnormal qualities they have may turn out to be the ones that make them unforgettable.

__**"The Rich Get Thinner, The Poor Get Fatter" **__ This an informative piece of writing. It shows the obesity rates in America and what is causing them. Warwick Sabin writes that fast food industry is the leading cause of obesity, because the take out restaurants are unhealthy and misleading. He explains how it is much cheaper to go buy something from McDonald's or Wendy's than it is to go buy organic foods and fruits and veggies. It just doesn't happen. The author appeals to logos, and provides logic to evoke a realization in the reader. He also appeals to emotion because he puts a type of guilt on the American consumer who is doing this to himself. He blames the people for this, as he should. I believe that it is true that the American people are causing their own obesity. If they know what they are eating is bad for them, they should stop, it really is that simple. You are the controller of your body and what you put into it. Sabin uses statistics as evidence to his main idea. Food can be good or bad depending on how responsible you are with it.

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