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Short topic in the fast food nation
The dark side of the fast food nation chapter 4
Short topic in the fast food nation
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The topic of Fast Food Nation would be how fast food businesses and corporations such as Burger King, McDonald’s, and Taco Bell were created and who the owners were and gave a little bit of their background, such as stating that these corporations were created either before or after World War II. The main claim of Fast Food Nation is how the fast food industry has a strong influence on American society and the American economy. Schlosser also discussed about how the fast food industry creates other businesses that actually help out the fast food industry. “Simplot quickly became the main supplier of french fries to McDonald's. At the time, McDonald's had about 725 restaurants in the United States. Within a decade it had more than 3,000" (pg. 115).Yes, the evidence used by Schlosser is reliable because …show more content…
his evidence stays on topic of how the fast food industry helped shape the economy after the Great Depression. The example from question 3 is the strongest evidence, “Simplot quickly became the main supplier of french fries to McDonald's. At the time, McDonald's had about 725 restaurants in the United States. Within a decade it had more than 3,000" (pg. 115). This quote shows how the fast food industry became the independent factor and how the economy basically relies on this industry to be successful due to all of the income from the many sprawling business and store locations.The audience that is targeted would be all those who have either thought about trying fast food or those who eat fast food, especially the ones that eat occasionally. This specific audience is the one that can relate or even understand the most from Schlosser. For example, I eat fast food sometimes 3 times a week after football practice because it is quick and it contains many carbs. However, after all that has been stated by Schlosser, especially the health effects, I have partially lost my interest for fast food, but not completely. Schlosser is well informed about the negative health effects of fast food because of the research he did on fast food and all of the stories he has heard of employees from these fast food stores. He stated on a PBS interview that, “They felt that their stories had not yet been told, and they wanted the world to know what was happening. Their help made "Fast Food Nation" possible.” This shows that Schlosser took massive amounts of time to make this piece a very accurate representation of what fast food really is. Schlosser stated, “... in 1990 the world had 3,000 Mcdonald’s restaurants and all were in America, now there are 15,000 in the world” (142).
Schlosser explained how this was a tremendous benefit for the economy since it helped trade, however he then counters this by stating how American culture was unhealthy because of fast food and how now American culture is now in the process of starting to negative impact people around the world.Schlosser begins by stating how the fast food corporations such as Mcdonald’s, Taco Bell, Carl’s Jr., and Wendy’s were created and how their businesses began to bloom due to its quickness. “Families soon lined up to eat at McDonald’s.Company historian John F. Love explained the lasting significance of McDonald’s new self-service system: “Working-class families could finally afford to feed their kids restaurant food” (30). Schlosser stated that the method he used to write this book with strong pieces of evidence was by “visiting fast food restaurants, speaking to employees, going to meatpacking plants” (274). He also uses his personal experience of when he bought his first hot dog cart and how it was a nice little business making it more relatable.The tone is informative because he explains the backstories of the some different fast food
corporations such as McDonald’s. “Richard McDonald designed a new building for the restaurant, hoping to make it easy to spot from the road.Though untrained as an architect, he came up with a design that was simple, memorable, and archetypal. On two sides of the roof he put golden arches, lit by neon at night, that from a distance formed the letter M.The building effortlessly fused advertising with architecture and spawned one of the most famous corporate logos in the world” (17). He states how Richard Mcdonald made the now famous logo for Mcdonald’s and he explained earlier how him and his brother switched from using silverware to using paper bags, cups, and plates. The tone then switches to concerned because of the negative sides of fast food. For example, Schlosser spoke to a Colorado ranch farmer, named Hank, and they discussed about how, “The companies destroy the land in order to raise cattle without much regard to environmental concerns” (146). Schlosser realized of how fast food companies not only negatively impact our health, but also how the stores themselves begin to destroy their surroundings. The mistreating of animals can be seen as inhumane because of how cattle is killed simply to fulfill the requirements of having meat to cook.The diction used by Schlosser is very descriptive and concrete,“I see: a man reach inside cattle and pull out their kidneys with his bare hands, then drop the kidneys down a metal chute, over and over again, as each animal passes him…” (171). This created an effect of disgust since the slaughterhouse is the place that the meat that we consume comes from, and the fact that bare hands are used give an extra plus to the disgust since people can be pretty filthy.The big picture that Schlosser attempts to portray is how fast food is a competing force that impacts nearly every aspect in America in different topics of our culture such as health, politics, economy, and society. He reveals how fast food is not beneficial to our health whatsoever, and believes that if people were to know the dark side of fast food then it can impact many people’s lives by teaching them potentially valuable information. The main rhetorical device or technique that is used by Schlosser is pathos. He takes the dark side of information about fast food and shares it with his audience, and he uses his own personal experience in order to make it more relatable and makes us “ewwwww” more. There is something about using your personal experience that simply makes everything that is being stated much more relatable because it is harder to relate to statistics then to another human. I believe that the purpose of the argument is to inform the people of how horrible fast food really is. There are doctors, friends, family, or personal trainers that state that fast food is bad because it gets you fat, however Schlosser takes it much deeper by stating how everything is made including him going to the slaughter houses and basically states everything that most people do not want to hear about fast food straightforward. Yes, I strongly believe that the argument is sound, not only because he took 50+ hours to research everything that was said in his book, but also because he spoke to employees from the stores and took their personal stories to portray the true meaning of fast food corporations. I felt like Schlosser expanded my mind, in a way, mostly because I love to eat some Mcdonald’s after a week of healthy eating and week long practices because of the satisfaction of finally eating something fattening like eating ice cream when sad to take away the pain of sadness. However, after realizing how greedy the companies are and why they prefer younger employees or immigrants annoyed me mostly because immigrants and youngsters can be taken advantage of, and also because Schlosser made me realize how horrible fast food really is. I absolutely loved this book because I can relate to this so much. I feel much more open minded than before and feel satisfied of the fact that I know why I have been performing much better at football practice since I have stopped eating fast food for about 2 weeks and why I have been feeling much more energetic. The section or the point of the book that really stood out to me the most would perhaps be the beginning, not because it’s the beginning, but because it has some of my favorite elements combined which are: food, history, and the ability to relate to it. Once Schlosser starting talking about the origin of the restaurants I was like, “hey that’s pretty interesting”, then he started talking about how they all started to bloom because of World War II, and in history World War II is my strongest topic which probably explains why I liked this book so much. Finally, I was able to relate to this book so much because of Schlosser explaining the origins of the restaurants like if they were his own stories like Carl being excited from getting his first hot dog cart, because the happiest I have ever been would be when I received my computer and simply fell in love with all the different things it can do. This text is much different than any other book that I have read like A Monster Calls not only because Fast Food Nation talks about food, but because of the way it is written. For example, A Monster Calls, stays in Conor’s perspective the entire time, while in Fast Food Nation the perspective differ from Schlosser narrating to him remembering personal experiences. The way this book was relatable is because again I reward myself with fast food after grinding out on the field or weight room, but the way Schlosser puts the book with the different tones and using pathos made this book strike home to me. This book differs from all of the fast food commercials, like the Big Mac commercial with the model walking down eating it because the commercial not only promotes fast food but puts an extremely positive view of it too. However, Fast Food Nation shows the darkness of the Big Mac like in the commercials it looks super good, however when you order one it looks like a kid put it together and partially microwaved it. Therefore, this book shows darkness while commercials show joy and light and these two contradicting elements give a deeper feel to the book.
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).
The New York Times bestseller Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is one of the most riveting books to come out about fast food restaurants to date (Schlosser, 2004). Fast food consumption has become a way of life for many in the United States as well as many other countries in the world. The author Eric Schlosser an investigative reporter whose impeccable researching and bold interviewing captures the true essence of the immense impact that fast food restaurants are having in America (2004). Beginning with McDonald’s, the first fast food restaurant, which opened on April 15, 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois to current trends of making fast food a global realization McDonald’s has paved the way for many fast food restaurants following the same basic ideal that is tasty foods served fast at a minimal cost (2011). Schlosser explains how fast food restaurants have gained substantial market share of the consumers; he also shows that by marketing to children and offering less unhealthful fare, that are purchased from mega-companies which are often camouflaged with added ingredients and cooked unhealthful ways, that these companies are indeed causing irreparable harm to our country (2004).
Besides directly explaining the various aspects of the fast food industry, Chew On This uncovers the argument that fast food has grown too powerful for even the government to control. These corporations have destroyed unique cultures, have raised health concerns, and have led to increased conformity. In the end, Schlosser and Wilson explain that the only power left lies within the consumer, who has the choice to either buy fast food or walk
In the book Fast Food Nation: The Darks Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser claims that fast food impacts more than our eating habits, it impacts “…our economy, our culture, and our values”(3) . At the heart of Schlosser’s argument is that the entrepreneurial spirit —defined by hard work, innovation, and taking extraordinary risks— has nothing to do with the rise of the fast food empire and all its subsidiaries. In reality, the success of a fast food restaurant is contingent upon obtaining taxpayer money, avoiding government restraints, and indoctrinating its target audience from as young as possible. The resulting affordable, good-tasting, nostalgic, and addictive foods make it difficult to be reasonable about food choices, specifically in a fast food industry chiefly built by greedy executives.
In Fast Food Nation, Schlosser goes beyond the facts that left many people’s eye wide opened. Throughout the book, Schlosser discusses several different topics including food-borne disease, near global obesity, animal abuse, political corruption, worksite danger. The book explains the origin of the all issues and how they have affected the American society in a certain way. This book started out by introducing the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station beside the Colorado Springs, one of the fastest growing metropolitan economies in America. This part presents the whole book of facts on fast food industry. It talks about how Americans spend more money on fast food than any other personal consumption. To promote mass production and profits, industries like MacDonald, keep their labor and materials costs low. Average US worker get the lowest income paid by fast food restaurants, and these franchise chains produces about 90% of the nation’s new jobs. In the first chapter, he interviewed Carl N. Karcher, one of the fast food industry’s leade...
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...
Over the last 50 years, the fast food industry did not only sold hamburgers and french fries. It has been a key factor for vast social changes throughout America. It has been responsible for breaking traditional American values and reinstating new social standards that specifically aims to benefit the industry’s growth. These social standards have inevitably changed the way the American youth respond to education and self-responsibility. Eric Schlosser, an author of Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, excellently uses logic to present the tactics used by the fast food industry to cheapen and promote labor along with the social changes that occurred in the American youth as a result. Schlosser aims to dismantle and dissect
From a study completed by Chicago-based Research International USA completed a study called “Fast Food Nation 2008. The panel consisted of 1,000 respondents of ages 16-65 who provided their inputs with an online survey which was conducted between March 13 through 2008. Which was based on results on fast food restaurants like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s are gaining popularity even through the economic hardship and recession. Marketing strategy has become more of influence on kids and young American’s. As population grows and the demand increases of fast food restaurants are expanding their stores to capturing more consumers. Fast food chains are also willing to change their menus to continue to gain and retain repeating customers. With each generation that passes, brings fast food chains into more homes and continues impacting lives.
Fast Food Nation The Author and His Times: The author of Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser, was born on August 17, 1959. Eric grew up in Manhattan, New York and also in Los Angeles where his father, Herbert Schlosser, was President of NBC. He attended the college of Princeton University where he studied American History, and soon got his degree in British Imperial History. Eric’s career soon took off when he became a journalist for The Atlantic Monthly, quickly earning two medals in a matter of two years.
The book, “Fast Food Nation”, by Eric Schlosser is all about how eating and food-production have changed since World War II. It also focused on how a small hotdog and hamburger stand in California spread worldwide and turned into a lifestyle of instant food. In the book, the author went into the deepest details about the emergence of fast food industry – from the early pioneers of the business, to the processing of the food, and even to the success of the business.
Over the last three decades, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society and has become nothing less than a revolutionary force in American life. Fast food has gained a great popularity among different age groups in different parts of the globe, becoming a favorite delicacy of both adults and children.
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...
Works Cited Schlosser, Eric. A. Fast Food Nation. N. p. : Harper Perennial, 2001. Print.