Analysis Of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation

American agriculture can produce more food on less land and at cheaper cost than any other nation. Did anyone ever wonder why or how? The documentary Food Inc., produced by Robert Kenner, is designed to put the spotlight on the unsafe preparation of food products, the inhuman treatment of animals being used, and the unethical treatment of workers in corporate farming. Robert Kenner uses multiple rhetorical analysis to get his aspect across to his viewers. Throughout the movie, there are several claims to appeal of ethos, pathos, and logos in order to uncover the true secrets of the American food during its journey to the table.

Schlosser describes the environment of the meat packing plants serving fast food companies in a startling straightforward narrative of his visit through a meat packing plant. He describes a brutal, and sometimes unsanitary environment. The rights of animals are a very broad and complex subject, but Schlosser touches on this as he describes the slaughterhouse floor. He describes animals in various states of disembowelment. Sometimes the animals were dead or stunned; sometimes they were thrashing about wildly in the last throws of death. The slaughter room floor was described as being covered with blood and feces. Employees worked at a furious pace to meet the day's quota. What bothered me most was the fact that this meat is not only prepared for fast food companies but also contracted out to serve our children's schools.

The All-American meal takes more out of Americans to make then at first glance. Eric Schlosser’s book Fast Food Nation delves deep into the intricate workings of the fast food industry to expose mistreatment and cruelty towards workers in the business, just as Upton Sinclair had done in the early 1900’s regarding the meat packing industry. Schlosser is able to bring light to the darkness behind the All-American meal through extensive research and personal confrontations of which he has high regards for.

In the book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser talks about the working conditions of fast food meat slaughterhouses. In the chapter “The Most Dangerous Job,” one of the workers, who despised his job, gave Schlosser an opportunity to walk through a slaughterhouse. As the author was progressed backwards through the slaughterhouse, he noticed how all the workers were sitting very close to each other with steel protective vests and knives. The workers were mainly young Latina women, who worked swiftly, accurately, while trying not to fall behind. Eric Schlosser explains how working in the slaughterhouses is the most dangerous profession – these poor working conditions and horrible treatment of employees in the plants are beyond

Schlosser uses appeals to ethos in order to convince readers of his credibility and authenticity, cementing his criticisms against the fast food industry as valid and deserving of attention. Throughout his introduction, Schlosser often writes in the first person, proclaiming that “I am concerned about [fast food’s] impact on the nation’s children”(9), and describing why “I chose Colorado Springs as a focal point for this book”(7). Schlosser thus explains himself to the reader, not only justifying his actions but more importantly using a more open and intimate tone to establish his persona of someone who sincerely cares for his nation and his cause. Schlosser also makes sure to mention that he visits all the settings he writes about in person. In one instance, he writes of the conditions he witnesses “during [his] trips

Over the span of one century, the world has had significant changes to society, such as advancements in transportation, fashion and technology. However, not all industries have had significant advancements in today 's modern world. For example, the food industry has been lacking in the basic necessities needed to sustain a safe, humane work environment, especially in the meat industry. Excerpts from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser elaborately explain the horrible environments inside the factory. Schlosser mainly addresses how unfit the conditions are for the workers, while Sinclair informs the reader of how the animals have been neglected in such poor conditions before death. Despite their differing

Throughout the novel Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser was able to incorporate the use of multiple examples of rhetorical devices to better enhance the meaning and structure of this piece. In doing so Schlosser opened the door to enormous amounts of possibilities in terms of the lessons the readers gain from reading the novel. Without embedding these rhetorical devices into the book all meaning would be lost and would simply be words on a page, however Schlosser was able to provide the opposite of the valueless words. Using devices such as imagery, diction, along with the appeal of like ethos Schlosser was enabled to go deeper into the fast food nation and the harm they cause due to the inexplicable emotions put forth.

It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of mean and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go in the hoppers together.”# There was nothing the packers would not do to make a profit, if meat went bad they would pickle it or make sausage out of it, “there was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white-it would be dosed with borax and glycerin, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption.”# The Packers took no responsibilities for the sickness that these meats caused. It was not uncommon for people to die from sickness they had gotten from eating bad meat, this is also an issue in “The Jungle” when a young family member suddenly dies one morning, “it was the smoked sausage he had eaten that morning-which may have been made out of some of the tubercular pork that was condemned unfit for export.”# Disease was also a factor for the workers, as quoted from the book “Meat and Men “Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle-rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world.”# It was also not uncommon for people to fall into the vats and become lard. “The public revolted at the

In the book, Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser discusses the problems that the nation is facing with fast food restaurants. Schlosser wrote this book because he was concerned with where the fast food industry was taking America. He voices his concern about the children and their health regarding meat bacteria, and the fat content of the food. He also mentions how potato farmers, cattle ranchers, and chicken raisers are suffering from the industry controlling prices too low. Another worry Schlosser has is how the meat packing factories for these restaurants treat their workers and ultimately how careful they are with the meat. There are many horrifying stories about the harsh injuries and

Fast food restaurants exude bright colors, distribute meals with toys, and create a sense of happiness, but what truly goes on behind the scenes of this magical industry? In Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, the authors use similar rhetorical strategies to reveal the motives and unconventional practices of the food industry. Schlosser conveys his purpose through the utilization of pathos, ethos, anecdotes and imagery as compared to Sinclair who uses historical references and figurative language as well as imagery and pathos.

This part gives a chronicled background from which Schlosser's discourse of the fast-food country will start. Here, the creator gives a to some degree nostalgic investigate the energizing post-World War II period when the economy was incredible and huge dreams were conceivable. Interestingly, Schlosser is essentially noiseless about the tumultuous race relations in Southern California in this period. While he quickly says the Ku Klux Klan on page 14, he doesn't say anything in regards to the vicinity of Mexican Americans. He may have utilized the establishing of Taco Bell to talk about how white Americans in this time and spot appropriated pictures of Mexico in certain ways. In addition, Schlosser refers to Cary McWilliams when examining the

Many feel that the fast food industry is providing a valuable service by catering to consumer needs; that it is inexpensive and easily accessible. For people who don't have time to prepare meals, for households in which both parents work, there's no question it provides a service. But what is the true cost of this convenience? In the book, Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser reveals that the cost is the lives of the people who work in the meat processing plants. Meat packing is now the most dangerous job in the United States.

Chapter 1- In this chapter I get an insight of the working environment in the eyes of Matthew Garcia an employee that experienced working at the factory. His named used in the text is not his real name, but made up in order to not reveal him. I can’t believe how some of these workers were in their cutting meat, while bleeding and having other accidents. Some of these people would cut their fingers off, it crazy thinking of how dangerous this job was to all these people during this time. Reading through the chapter its surprising finding out how fast paced the job was for little pay. The production increased tremendously from just processing 3 animals in one day to 4,000 in one day is mind blowing. I am shocked on how this system worked under the hands of George Hormel in the late eighteen hundreds. Many of these workers at QPP were getting ill doctors couldn’t find what they were diagnosed with until stating it was the speed of the lines. The increase in slaughtering was causing workers to catch diseases more frequent than before. These jobs were so

Imagine living in a confined two-feet-wide gestation crate, unable to move, standing on concrete floors waiting to be fed, day after day until it is time to be taken to the slaughterhouse, and become a menu option to accompany someone’s sunny side up eggs at an American diner. A photograph taken inside an industrial animal factory emerged on the internet exposing the factory’s standard and inhumane practice in the United States. Rows and rows of hundreds of pigs in single crates can be seen in a dimly lit football field sized shed, unable to roam freely across pastures while feeling the warmth of the sun. The photograph exposes the reality of how harmfully animals are being raised and killed for food as though they are unfeeling machines. Old MacDonald had a farm until the agricultural business, also known as agribusiness, evolved and started building larger and new mega factories imprisoning animals until they are shepherded into trucks on their way to being murdered. Animals can love, animals can think, animals can dream, and animals can surely feel pain. There is a quiet holocaust taking place in the animal kingdom, and there is so much that has to be done, but there is hope.

Virgil Butlers testimony from his time working for Tyson Foods is painstakingly detailed to articulate his point of how well-thought out the killing process was within this factory. Along with his traumatic experience, he emphasizes how the methods used were meant for the quickest murder of chickens, one which is not morally justified. Butler’s depiction of these factories made me want to investigate myself, especially because I never truly looked into how these animals are kept. After further investigation, I came to realize that regardless of the “humane” upbringing, once animals are mature they are slaughtered by the masses whether it is painless or not, is insensitive thus immoral. Those that argue that the machines are built for painless mass killings disregard the fact that these are human operated, not only do humans make mistakes but they are desensitized themselves from their occupation. The daunting feeling for industry workers eating processed meat in their day to day lives is depicted by Butler when he states, “But you don’t want chicken. You have to be really hungry to eat that” (Gruen 77). It seems difficult because one is associated with the pain and anguish of other beings, by the masses.