Summary Of Fast Food Nation

Ever just wonder what makes the food from McDonald’s, Burger King, Jack in the Box, or other successful fast food restaurants so good. Well in this proposal, you will know 3 things that the fast food industry is hiding. The author of the book, Chew On This, is Eric Schlosser. The book was published in 2006. It’s mostly about the things of fast food; what they hide what they do to become successful. Eric wrote this to tell everyone about it. The fast food industry is making choices that is affecting the people that eat their food. They do choices that include violating animal rights, health problems and manipulative advertisement.

“I aimed at the public’s heart and by accident I hit in the stomach” stated the international famous Upton Sinclair, after writing his most prominent novel, The Jungle. The word jungle is constantly associated with a wild environment full of undomesticated animals, but in this authentic novel, it refers to the unethical actions practiced during the gilded age. Sinclair’s main idea was to end all the unjust activities experienced during this time by writing and using the experience of his main character. Throughout the novel, the audience can perceive themes such as capitalism and socialism, historical events and symbolism.

Eric Schlosser argues that marketing to children is the easiest and most strategic way to meet sales forecasts. In his book Fast Food Nation, Schlosser states that, “eight year olds are considered ideal customers; they have about sixty-five years of purchasing in front of them.” Children are extremely malleable and easily influenced as they are forming their habits, opinions, and tastes. When companies market to kids, it is likely that the child will continue to purchase from that company as they grow up. The fast food industry greatly relies on its familiarity and consistency. Someone who grows up eating McDonalds is likely to continue eating there because it is familiar. According to Time Magazine, studies show that approximately 34% of

Novelist, Eric Schlosser, in his novel, “Fast Food Nation”, expresses how fast food has spread. Schlosser’s purpose is to make us see how addicted we are to fast food. He adopts a shocking tone through the use of diction, Logos, and diction in order to get people to make better choices.

Intro: When people eat food they do not think about what is in it, or how it is made. The only thing people care about is what the food tastes like and how much they get. During the 1900’s the meat packing industry had not regulations of any kind. All that mattered to the industry was that they made as much money as possible with as little expenditure as possible. During this times people were often made sick and died either from working conditions or poor food quality. Although it may seem that the meat packing industry is still in turmoil because of their unwillingness to make known what foods have Genetically Modified organisms present, the meat packing industry was much worse during the 1900’s because of the unsafe working conditions, and uncleanliness of the food.

Upton Sinclair was born on September 20th, 1878. Him and his family moved to New York City in 1888 due to his father being an alcoholic. His family was extremely poor, unlike Sinclair’s grandparents, who were extremely wealthy. He claims that because of his experiences with the lifestyle of being poor and wealthy, it turned him into a socialist. Sinclair entered New York City college at the age of fourteen. By writing stories for the newspapers and magazines, he was able to help pay for college. He then moved into his own apartment and supplied his parents with a regular income by age seventeen. In 1902, Sinclair married Meta Fuller and began writing novels. After the discouraging effect of his first three novels, Fred Warren found something special within Sinclair’s writing. Warren told Sinclair to write a novel about immigrant workers in Chicago meat packing houses. Julius Wayland gave Sinclair five hundred dollars to help him start his writing. He wrote The Jungle after seven weeks of researching. The Jungle got rejected by six publishers. Sinclair then decided to publish it himself, and received orders for nine hundred and seventy-two copies. This sparked interest to Doubleday, an American publishing company, which

“The great corporation which employed you lied to you, and lied to the whole country—from top to bottom it was nothing but one gigantic lie” (Upton Sinclair).The revolutionary figure that will be addressed in this essay is the one and only Upton Sinclair. Through most of his life, starting from the age of 14, Sinclair was invested in voicing his opinions through fiction. He did this by taking a real-life issue and integrating it into the plot of his literature while a point of view in that literature is given to a fictional character representing something or someone related to the real-life issue. Although Upton Sinclair didn’t intend to, he improved the meat-packing industry’s cleanliness and ethics by revealing unethical practices and being

Schlosser argues America’s lives are solely based off of fast food. Throughout his writing he describes how common it is in our society in which fast food is ordered, sold, and consumed. Everywhere you go, every glimpse you take, every corner you pass, fast food is being sold everywhere. Schlosser describes throughout his text the commonality of fast food in restaurants, airports, schools, and large chained stores available nationwide, in which each compress the similarity of fast food. Not only does he include how common fast food is in an American’s life, but he describes how Americans will spend more of their money in their wallet on fast food than they would on other livelihood essentials. He includes how vastly the economy has been effected

In Margaret Visser’s essay, “The Rituals of Fast Food”, she explains the reason why customers enjoy going to fast food restaurants and how it adapt to customer’s needs. Some examples of the most loyal fast-food customers are people seeking convenience, travelers, and people who are drug addicts.

Schlosser, an investigative journalist, already has built ethos for his readers before writing this piece. Schlosser investigates and works hard to get primary information and personal experience to share with those interested, in this case, the fast food industry. Schlosser first begins his article with a quote from Ray Kroc that states,” The French Fry was…almost sacrosanct for me,” (1051) his choice to include this in his introduction was close to brilliant. He is writing to a friendly American audience who very likely has had a French fry or two in their lifetime. However, when he

Chapter 7 of Fast Food Nation discussed the starting of meatpacking industry and its downfalls. At first, Iowa Beef Packers (IBP) used the same principle as McDonald’s principle to make fast foods. IBP hired unskilled workers just to do simple and repeated work all day. However, competition with other companies made IBP low wages and health insurance options. This caused slaughterhouses to move West to gain cheap labor and land. As stated in the text, “The relentless low-cost competition from IBP presented old-line Chicago meatpackers with a stark choice: go west or go out of business” (pg.155). Speaker claimed that there were two choices either going to the west or go out of business. Logically, companies would not give up their business.

After reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, the readers understand why Schlosser wrote the book. Schlosser uses certain diction, and rhetoric to get his point across. His point of view changes from the beginning of the book, to the end, but the readers are able to relate to his choice for doing so. He effectively gets his purpose across throughout the entire book, he effectively informs the reader about the well-being of the many people in the fast food industry, and he effectively makes it very clear to his readers how he feels a bout fast food,

Upton Sinclair’s, The Jungle is a novel, which affected the food industry in 1900’s but also in America today. People have learned over the years the truths about the food industry, revealed through Sinclair’s detailed evidence. Sinclair meant to aim at the public’s heart but instead he shot straight at their stomachs. One would easily be convinced to never again buy or eat meat again. Fortunately, people have seen changes from 1906 and have been currently trying to repair the Food Industry. The food industry has better improvements yet; it still needs a thorough cleansing. Although food production has bettered in the last 100 years by its treatment of workers and government’s oversight, it has had some adverse effects like company’s protection

Sara, a single mother of two kids, is driving home from a grueling day of work. She’s worked overtime all week and has some tightness in her back. Upon looking at the clock on the dashboard of her 1996 Volkswagen, she realizes that it is way too late to go home and cook a nice dinner for her two children. She turns into the nearest McDonalds, orders some chicken nuggets, and brings dinner home. Can you blame a mother who just wanted her kids to eat? In “Don’t Blame the Eater”, David Zinczenko sympathizes with those mothers. He argues that there are simply not enough alternatives to the thousands of fast food restaurants and that the lack of information about those alternatives further complicates things.

In the year 1993 a sociologist named George Ritzer wrote a book called The McDonaldization of Society, which wasn’t about how the deliciousness of McNuggets has revolutionized the world, but instead focused on how the methodology and rational structuring used at the McDonalds franchise functions. The concept is that traditional ways of thinking are replaced by ends/means focused goals, sense of social control and prioritization of efficiency. In the words of Ritzer McDonaldization is “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world”.