Fast Food Nation Summary

420 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of fast food on the society

In writing, Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser’s overall purpose was to inform the reader of what actually goes into the food they eat. He worked to bring to the light all that the fast food industry does in the dark. Whether it be the unsanitary slaughterhouses, as described on page 203, “The pathogens from infected cattle are spread not only in feedlots, but also at slaughterhouses and hamburger grinders. The slaughterhouse tasks most likely to contaminate meat are the removal of an animal’s hide and the removal of its digestive system . . . if a hide has been inadequately cleaned, chunks of dirt and manure may fall from it onto the meat”, or the horrific treatment of laborers, depicted on page 170, “The kill floor is hot and humid. It stinks of manure. Cattle have a body …show more content…

It happens to workers all the time”, an injustice was occurring, and Schlosser sought to put an end to it. The purpose behind Fast Food Nation is quite similar to that of Sinclair’s, The Jungle, in the sense that they both worked to educate the audience about the behind-the-scenes of their food. The only difference between the two, was the delivery of that purpose. Sinclair exposed the industry through an emotion-driven story about a particular immigrant family who suffered from all the corruption said business brought. Whereas Schlosser focused on a more factual driven book that criticized the fast food industry through multiple historical events. In terms of effectiveness, Sinclair’s, The Jungle, was far more powerful. Aside from the fact that actual legislation was passed after the publishing of the book, the thing that allowed The Jungle to have more success was sinclair’s use of pathos. This strategy moved the audience in such a way, that it was nearly impossible to absorb the author’s beliefs about

Show More
Related

  • Eric Schlosser's Slaughterhouse In The High Plains

    594 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Perennial, 2002.

    Read More

  • Fast Food Nation Summary

    1394 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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:

    Read More

  • Ethics In Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle'

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    While The Jungle was by far Sinclair’s most famous work, what many are not aware of is the fact that The Jungle was initially written as an expose for a well-known socialist newspaper in the country, Appeal to Reason. Although Sinclair once said he were to write the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin of the labor movement”, he did so not by merely speculating what the meat packing industry was like, but by actually experiencing the lifestyle firsthand. Upton Sinclair went to the packing plants himself in order to truly gain the experience of what it was like to work in the stockyards as well as communicating directly with employees, laborers, social workers, and locals to truly grasp what life was like in a place like Packingtown. It was not until Sinclair was able to take all of his experiences in that he was able to sit down and write an accurate and to some, frightful expose of what the meat packing industry

    Read More

  • Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and the Pure Food and Drug Act

    1672 Words  | 4 Pages

    Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” gave the most in-depth description of the horrid truths about the way America’s food companies, “the only source of food for people living in the city,” are preparing the food they sell. “The Jungle” describes the terrible

    Read More

  • The Meat Inspection Act of 1906

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1906, socialist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a book he hoped would awaken the American people to the deplorable conditions of workers in the meat packing industry. Instead, the book sent the country reeling with its description of filthy, rat infested plants, suspect meats processed and sold to consumers, and corrupt government inspectors. President Roosevelt became seriously concerned by the charges brought forth by Mr. Sinclair and determined the only way to protect consumers from unscrupulous business and unsafe food was to enforce regulation.

    Read More

  • Upton Sinclairs "The Jungle"

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    Several years before and after the turn the turn of the twentieth century, America experienced a large influx of European immigration. These new citizens had come in search of the American dream of success, bolstered by promise of good fortune. Instead they found themselves beaten into failure by American industry. Upton Sinclair wanted to expose the cruelty and heartlessness endured by these ordinary workers. He chose to represent the industrial world through the meatpacking industry, where the rewards of progress were enjoyed only by the privileged, who exploited the powerless masses of workers. The Jungle is a novel and a work of investigative journalism; its primary purpose was to inform the general public about the dehumanization of American workers. However the novel was much more effective at exposing the unsanitary conditions of the meatpacking industry.

    Read More

  • Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser

    1927 Words  | 4 Pages

    To fully understand Fast Food Nation, the reader must recognize the audience the novel is directed towards, and also the purpose of it. Eric Schlosser’s intention in writing this piece of literature was to inform America of how large the fast food industry truly is, larger than most people can fathom. Schlosser explains that he has “written this book out of a belief that people should know what lies behind the s...

    Read More

  • The Effects of Literary Elements in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

    558 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I aimed for the public’s heart, and by accident I hit them in the stomach” (Sinclair). Upton Sinclair uses these words to describe the reaction his novel, The Jungle, received upon its first publication. Sinclair’s original purpose of The Jungle intends to illustrate the difficult challenges of immigrants in Chicago at the turn of the century, giving details and samples of abuses in the Chicago meatpacking industry to highlight their troubles. Instead, the public demands government intervention against the atrocities and this public outcry leads to the 1906 Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. Elements of Naturalism exist throughout most of the text.

    Read More

  • The Reality Of Eastern European Materialism In Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle'

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    He hoped his book “The Jungle” would accomplish “significant change” to the day to day lives of immigrants who worked in the slaughterhouses (Foner 544). On the contrary, his book shifted the motif of his muckraking. David Cohen, author of “Sinclair: Muckraker for thinking person,” explains that instead of the American public focusing on the “poor working conditions” they pivoted their attention to “what was in their lunch” ( Cohen pg 4). Society was more intrigued with the details about their food than the safety of the workers. President Theodore Roosevelt read “The Jungle”; He was appalled by what he read. Cohen explains that even the executive leader of the United States had to “dispatch investigators to Chicago and report in detail [the] filthy conditions of the the killing floors” (Cohen, Telegraph Herald). Upon realizing the reality Sinclair was trying to unveil, society perceived the issue alternatively. Christopher Phelps, author of “How Should We Teach ‘The Jungle’ ” states that society viewed the reality differently— from Sinclair— because they associated what they read with what they

    Read More

  • The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: Fame for the Wrong Reason

    2809 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the early 1900’s America begin to transform rapidly. Many immigrants started moving to the United States in the early 1900’s with the hopes of living the “American Dream.” However, that glittering and gleaming American lifestyle is merely a distant ideal for the immigrants living in Packingtown, the meatpacking district of Chicago. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle portrays life through the eyes of a poor workingman struggling to survive in this cruel, tumultuous environment, where the desire for profit among the capitalist meatpacking bosses and the criminals makes the lives of the working class a nearly unendurable struggle for survival. The novel The Jungle is a hybrid of history, literature, and propaganda. Sinclair, a muckraking journalist of the early 1900s exposed to the nation an industry grounded by the principles of deceit and filth, and offered a new resolution to end this problem. The novel and its massive depiction of the grotesque and unsanitary conditions created an impetus for the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act (McCage 1) which transformed American lifestyle. The Jungle is notorious for exposing the grotesque and unsanitary conditions that existed in the meat packing industry; however, the novel’s purpose expands beyond this issue and reveals the disillusionment of the American dream, the evils of a capitalistic system, and a feasible plan to end corruption.

    Read More

  • The Jungle

    884 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sinclair was very plain in describing the nature of the food the Americans were consuming due to the nature of the parking house experience. Sinclair wanted to expose the exploitation of the poor and oppressed in America. His description of contaminated meats drew more attention, where spoiled harms are treated with formaldehydes and sausage made out of rotten meats. His aim of writing the jungle is to introduce the people to socialism because the rich who owned industries are using their wealth to take advantage of the poor citizens.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Fast Food Nation

    1247 Words  | 3 Pages

    Tone: The author’s tone in Fast Food Nation is very informative with also an entertainment side. Throughout the book, Eric Schlosser is always giving facts about different things, but along with the facts comes excitement and entertainment. Eric Schlosser uses this strategy to keep the audience in check. In other words, to keep the person who is reading the book interested. Many authors use this kind of tone to their story because if they don’t, then people would stop reading their work, but instead, the reader wants to get to the interesting facts and keep on

    Read More

  • Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Jungle is a political fiction novel by Upton Sinclair. The story follows the harsh lives of an immigrated Lithuania couple living in the meatpacking district of Chicago. Sinclair’s purpose for writing this novel is to provide insight to the harsh conditions that immigrants face. However, the Muckraker chapter inadvertently directed everyone’s attention to the meat industry. While evaluating Chapter IX of The Jungle, it is evident that Sinclair’s most prominent purpose for writing this novel is to raise awareness for the situations immigrants to America are exposed to. It is apparent that this novel left an impact on American society due to the raised awareness of immigrant’s treatments and the passing of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act.

    Read More

  • hgk

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    Section 1: Typically, we need a well-balanced meal to give us the energy to do day-to-day tasks and sometimes we aren’t able to get home cooked meals that are healthy and nutritious on a daily basis, due to the reasons of perhaps low income or your mom not being able to have the time to cook. People rely on fast food, because it’s quicker and always very convenient for full-time workers or anyone in general who just want a quick meal. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation argues that Americans should change their nutritional behaviors. In his book, Schlosser inspects the social and economic penalties of the processes of one specific section of the American food system: the fast food industry. Schlosser details the stages of the fast food production process, like the farms, the slaughterhouse and processing plant, and the fast food franchise itself. Schlosser uses his skill as a journalist to bring together appropriate historical developments and trends, illustrative statistics, and telling stories about the lives of industry participants. Schlosser is troubled by our nation’s fast-food habit and the reasons Schlosser sees fast food as a national plague have more to do with the pure presence of the stuff — the way it has penetrated almost every feature of our culture, altering “not only the American food, but also our landscape, economy, staff, and popular culture. This book is about fast food, the values it represents, and the world it has made," writes Eric Schlosser in the introduction of his book. His argument against fast food is based on the evidence that "the real price never appears on the menu." The "real price," according to Schlosser, varieties from destroying small business, scattering pathogenic germs, abusing wor...

    Read More

More about Fast Food Nation Summary

Open Document