The story Home of the Whopper, by Thomas Frank really shines some light on what is really going on in these fast food restaurants. The author begins his story by starting at the beginning, on Hillsborough Road in Durham. In the Home of the Whopper there is some behind the scene truth. The central idea the author is talking about are the various fast food restaurants in the local area, along with how bad the environment was. The location he references is unsafe to walk and should only be driven through. The area was littered with trash on the ground. Although it was near a huge college campus, Duke University, it was an unsavory location known for crime. Also, it the road is between two thruway exits.The author really does a good job with imagery, showing how efficient the fast industry is. He does this by illustrating how the ingenuity of different restaurants and companies operate. They describe various cup holders, to the twin basket fryer, to the lips that actually flip up drinks. The main factors that decide where they place their restaurants are things like landscape and highway production programs, as well as the media. A big event that happened on August 29 in North Carolina was a strike in a state where there are no unions and the very spot that was the birthplace of some of the first fast food places such as Hardees and Krispy Kreme. Early in the morning on this particular day, at 6 a.m., the protesters started forming. They began to yell about how they could possibly survive $7.25. How could they feed their own families? TV news crews and policeman began to show up, and then the protest became real. People driving by honked their horns to show support of the protesters. The protestor grew in size as the... ... middle of paper ... ...trike happened and has evidence that the company consider it a food system then a restaurant. Also the way he introduces the first paragraph and how he described the road it was like i was walking down the road. the author really bring out the truth out about these fast food chains and it is brave to go up against these large companies. You really start to feel bad about the people that work there , they don't deserve the treatment that they are getting. Also honestly if they say machines can replace people in these jobs why haven't they done it , oh wait thats right no one would want to buy food made by a robot. The author really took a big chance going up against these big companies. To make it so the truth came out. After reading something like this you think twice before you go threw that drive thru. that is the story that started on Hillsborough Road.
An employee strike might seem like a modern technique but it’s moderately, if not fully, based on an actual event in Texas in 1883. This book illustrates the importance of the changing political, social, and economic factors that shaped this country. It shows the devastation that comes with it; people defying and protesting the change that contradicts from their way of living. It also brings out the importance of economic laws and barriers that prevent large businesses from yielding too much power and exploiting the public. The novel not only has some of the elements of western fiction, rich and big against the poor and small, justice serving at the end, and the main protagonist wearing the heroic sheriff’s badge but also brings a great deal of recreation, intuition, and exhilaration. It also provides moments of bonding and congregation as the degradation by big ranchers made the cowboys join together and do the inconceivable – go on a strike. It has an unexpected turn of events from a quarrel over cow brand to a gripping courtroom
Eric Schlosser enters the slaughterhouse in the High Plains to show behind the scenes of fast food and how it is made. He was not expecting what actually lies behind the cold doors of the factory. People remain to have the misconception of fast food being made in the restaurant. Nobody thinks about there being a dark side to it all. Schlosser pulls on his knee high boots and guides readers through a pool of blood to show where we manufacture our food.
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Perennial, 2002.
Often people buy a book at a bookstore after reading the first few pages to make sure that the book is interesting enough to continue reading at home. That is why Amazon has a “Click to LOOK INSIDE!” button on each book. It is the most important part of a whole book in order to catch potential readers. One would expect that both In-N-Out Burger and Fast Food Nation must have strong hooks at the beginning since they were both New York Times bestsellers. Although they both focus on the fast food industry, there is quite a contrast in the way they are written. In the prologue of In-N-Out Burger, the author Stacy Perman writes not about the hamburgers or the company, but mainly about the phenomena that the burgers caused. On the other hand, in the introduction of Fast Food Nation, the author Eric Schlosser splits it into two different parts, a story about Cheyenne Mountain Base and a quick overview of fast food industry. Throughout the prologue of In-N-Out Burger, Perman successfully gets the attention of the readers by describing the facts in detail, which makes them want to turn the pages for further reading. On the contrary, despite Schlosser’s concise and precise narrative, the introduction of Fast Food Nation does not seem to make the readers want to read more due to his unsuccessful analogy and composition of the chapter. The introduction of In-N-Out Burger definitely draws more attention of the readers than that of Fast Food Nation due to the rhetoric and composition.
“Out of every $1.50 spent on a large order of fries at fast food restaurant, perhaps 2 cents goes to the farmer that grew the potatoes,” (Schlosser 117). Investigative journalist Eric Schlosser brings to light these realities in his bestselling book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Schlosser, a Princeton and Oxford graduate, is known for his inspective pieces for Atlantic Monthly. While working on article, for Rolling Stone Magazine, about immigrant workers in a strawberry field he acquired his inspiration for the aforementioned book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, a work examining the country’s fast food industry (Gale).
Andrew F. Smith once said, “Eating at fast food outlets and other restaurants is simply a manifestation of the commodification of time coupled with the relatively low value many Americans have placed on the food they eat”. In the non-fiction book, “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser, the author had first-hand experiences on the aspects of fast food and conveyed that it has changed agriculture that we today did not have noticed. We eat fast food everyday and it has become an addiction that regards many non-beneficial factors to our health. Imagine the wealthy plains of grass and a farm that raises barn animals and made contributions to our daily consumptions. Have you ever wonder what the meatpacking companies and slaughterhouses had done to the meat that you eat everyday? Do you really believe that the magnificent aroma of your patties and hamburgers are actually from the burger? Wake up! The natural products that derive from farms are being tampered by the greed of America and their tactics are deceiving our perspectives on today’s agricultural industries. The growth of fast food has changed the face of farming and ranching, slaughterhouses and meatpacking, nutrition and health, and even food tastes gradually as time elapsed.
‘Fast Food Nation’ by Eric Schlosser traces the history of fast food industry from old hot dog stands to the billion dollar franchise companies established as America spread its influence of quick, easy and greasy cuisine around the globe. It is a brilliant piece of investigative journalism that looks deep into the industries that have profited from the American agriculture business, while engaging in labor practices that are often shameful.
One of the most shocking books of the generation is Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation. The novel includes two sections, "The American Way" and "Meat and Potatoes,” that aid him in describing the history and people who have helped shape up the basics of the “McWorld.” Fast Food Nation jumps into action at the beginning of the novel with a discussion of Carl N. Karcher and the McDonald’s brothers. He explores their roles as “Gods” of the fast-food industry. Schlosser then visits Colorado Springs and investigates the life and working conditions of the typical fast-food industry employee. Starting out the second section, Schlosser travels to the western side of Colorado to examine the effects presented to the agriculture world in the new economy. Following Schlosser’s journey across the nation, he leads everything up to slaughterhouses and the main supply of income for fast food franchises – the meat. After visiting the meat industries in America, Schlosser explores the expansion of fast food around the eastern hemisphere – including the first McDonalds in Germany. Throughout Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser presents in his point of view and informative tone, a detailed disscussion of the conditions using various examples imagry and flowing diction/syntax to help support and show his audience the reasoning behind the novel.
" While 8 hour day strike movement was generally peaceful, there was some acts of violence that set the labor movement back. The McCormick Harvester Company in Chicago learned ahead of time of a planned strike and so locked out all its employees who held union cards. Because of this fights broke out and police opened fire on the union members killing four of them. A public rally to protest these killings at Haymarket Square drew a large crowd. When a bomb went off, killing seven police officers and wounding fifty more, the police began to fire into the crowd and several more people were killed and about two-hundred wounded.
One of the first thing Schlosser address is work-related injuries. Schlosser states that more than “200,000 [tennagers] are injured on the job” (Schlosser 122). To the reader, this may be a large number, but in retrospect, it’s actually tiny. According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, a report regarding workplace accidents in 1998 showed that a total of 5.9 million injuries was reported. In comparison, 200,000 only makes up 3.4% of the nationwide injuries making fast food restaurants relatively safe in that aspect. Schlosser misleads his audience by failing to give it a sense of scale or magnitude. Next, Schlosser concludes that due to the increased job opportunities for teenagers, as a result, fast food restaurants had become a target for robbers and other violent crimes. Schlosser backs up his statement through extreme examples of robbery cases and a few obscure statistical reports. First Schlosser lists numerous extreme examples of violent crime cases that resulted in a homicide. “A former cook… became a fast food serial killer, murdering two workers… three workers…” (Schlosser 127). Schlosser hopes that these examples will appeal to the emotions of the reader, in order to persuade that fast food restaurants had become a hub for violent crimes. While he lists many examples of this, these are individual cases that resonate a rather extreme case. Schlosser uses these example to visualize to the reader, that this is how most robberies end up when it isn't the case. The use of pathos in these examples exaggerate the problem beyond the actual scope. While this may be effective, it fails to provide complete transparency between the author and the audience. The statistical reports Schlosser offers are outdated, ones like “ In 1998, more
Sheasley, Chelsea B. "'Super-size' Strike: Why Fast-food Workers Walked out for Higher Wages." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
When you think of McDonald’s or Burger King you probably think of the Big Mac and the Whopper because they are their most famous sandwiches. “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun”, is the famous Big Mac song. But who knows what comes on a Whopper? McDonald’s has made a catchy song to help people remember what is on their famous burger, but Burger King has yet to come up with anything to tell us what the Whopper entails. I would rather know what came on the burger I was going to eat, then buying it and hoping I enjoy ever...
We are appalled by the facts presented and we think that it’s not right anymore. The author wants us to see the truth behind the working conditions and feel like they are unacceptable. I feel as though we should protest the laws in place now that enable the dangerous conditions of these workplaces. As mentioned before, the “OSHA Reform Act” should be repealed because it prohibits OSHA from being able to inspect the factories. I think this is unacceptable and unethical because the act was put in place so factories do not lose money. Also, the rules in place at fast food restaurants, such as being trained before starting the job, should be more brutally enforced to ensure the workers’ safety. When I worked at a restaurant, the manager sometimes slacked on executing the rules so I didn’t know much about the job. I worked in a pizza restaurant that used cornmeal on the pans so the dough didn’t stick. When the cook took the pizza out of the oven, the cornmeal would fall on the floor making it slippery, but the manager never explained how to clean this up. Because of this, I would always slip on the piles of cornmeal while getting a pizza. Instead of owners and managers of fast food restaurants being worried about getting workers on the job more quickly, I think they should take their time explaining the job more carefully to prevent injury in the long
The women would stay there from dusk to dawn every day, every once in awhile they would switch places and go home then return in the morning. They wanted an amendment (19th) to be passed. The pickets and banners that were held outside the gates had quotes from Woodrow Wilson, the women were trying to use his words against him. Also said more of Woodrow Wilson quotes out loud then burned them, the men walking by became angry of the women and attacked them. Woodrow wanted to throw them in jail but need to charge them with something, so they got charged with “obstructing traffic.” After going to court each of the women had to pay a 10 dollar fine or sent to jail for 60 days. They were brave, they picked the 60 days in jail.
McDonalds chicken nuggets were my favorite meal as a kid. Theres nothing like getting a free toy and some greasy food. However, I 've gotten older and my palette has changed. As a kid I struggled with obesity and fast food was a major contributor. I now live in an area where fast food is really not an option. On the other hand, some Americans only option is fast food.