Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer Lit. Analysis

Part 1: The book starts off in Foer's early years telling of the world's greatest cook (when he was younger) his grandmother; his fatherhood, when he started researching for the book: and his wife and their label as vegetarians who sometimes ate meat. The book being non-fiction, partially autobiographical, and informative, it lacked a climax. The book goes on to tell the relationship of "farm animals" to household pets, the technology that is harming our sea life, words and their meaning, farming and farmers, the effect of genetically modified food, the effect of farm animals on the environment, and ends with a chapter on thanksgiving, more specifically, the turkeys.

Part 2: The main theme of this book is facing reality. "While it is always possible to wake a person who is sleeping, no amount of noise will wake a person who is pretending to be asleep" stated by Foer. Foer decided to focus on this theme because the dangers of ignorance. Factory farming genetically farmed food is not beneficial to us besides producing a lot of meat that we don't need and is harmful to us, animals, and the environment.

Part 3:  Being non-fiction, the closest to a protagonist is Foer himself. Foer is a well-rounded guy who can see two sides of the story. While being a vegetarian and seeing that meat is not necessary for human consumption, he still has respect for farmers that take care of and treat animals correctly. "But I went to farms where animals were treated better than I treat my dogs, and it would be impossible to honestly try to argue that they don't have good lives. So, of course, they're killed in the end, but our lives are destined for death also." This statement by Foer shows that he has respect for progress being made in ending factory farming.

Part 4: A significant symbol from the novel would be a food label, free-range, fresh, and organic. These labels almost mean nothing. Free-range means "access to the outdoors", which could mean a small door that is sometimes open at the end of the shed containing 30,000 chickens. "Fresh" can be frozen and there is no time component to food freshness. To be organic the animal has to be raised on organic feed, traced through their life cycle, not fed antibiotics or growth hormones, and have "access to the outdoors." the book, being about the food industry, shows the misconception that consumers have because the little information food corporations have to provide about where their food comes from.

Part 5: When I saw the book it appealed to me because I'm vegetarian and I knew it would relate to me. I also enjoy learning about our food industry and the effects it has on people, animals, and the environment.

Part 6: Since the book is non-fiction these events really do happen and it's eye opening to read or see about how the food on your table came to be. About a year and a half ago I saw an opportunity, one of my really close friends was a vegetarian, and me not being someone who likes to join things on their own, I hopped on the train.

Part 7: "Common Farming Exemptions (CFE) make legal any method of raising farmed animals so long as it is commonly practiced in the industry." The CFE is definitely something I will remember because it's insane how the government give corporations power to define what's cruel in the farming industry.

Latin Roots #6

Roots and Derivatives

1. corp(or) (body): corpse, corporation, corps, corpuscle, corporeal, corpus, corset
2. cred (to believe, to trust): credo, credit, discredit, credence, credentials, accreditation
3. cur(r), curs, course (to run, to flow): current, excursion, discourse, concur, recourse, curriculum, recurrent
4. dic(t) (to speak, to say): diction, indication, edict, jurisdiction, dictionary, addict, interdiction

Word List

Benediction: n :the invocation of a divine blessing, at the close of a religious service; a blessing or a state of blessedness

·         The benediction of the funeral was very long as every person blessed their beloved family member.

Concourse: n :a running or flowing together; a broad public walkway or hallway; a crowd or throng

·         The concourse to the main stage was very crowded.

Concurrent: a :occurring at the same time; meeting or acting together

·         The amount of feces being produced in factory farms is concurrent at about 80,000 pounds per second.

Corporal: a :related to the physical body

·         A corporal examination of your body is often called a physical.

Corpulent: a :very stout; fleshy and obese; fat

·         In ancient times being corpulent in size was a sign of wealth.

Credibility: n :the quality of being believable or trustworthy

·         The bank will not loan you money if you have bad credibility.

Credulity: n :the (naive) willingness to believe too easily without proof

·         The credulity of my mom combined with the sarcasm of my brother causes her to be confused often.

Cursory: a :done in a superficial or hasty manner

·         The cursory manner of our meat production in factory farms causes cruelty to animals.

Dictum: n :an authoritative saying or  maxim

·         My teachers use of dictums annoy me as they always state the obvious

Incorporate: v  :to form into one body or functioning unit; to combine several different things into a whole

·         The game studio decided to incorporate all their previous games into one for the next generation of gaming systems.

Incredulous: a :not believing, skeptical, or doubting

·         The community shows an incredulous feeling on where there tax money goes to.

Indicative: a :characteristic of or very much like; suggestive

·         The  label was indicative of warnings and precautions.

Greek Drama ?'s

1. A bull or goat was won by dancing choruses of worshipers.
2. As many as fourteen thousand spectators gathered in the open-air Theater of Dionysus.
3.  Masks had exaggerated mouthpieces that amplified the voices of the actors.
4. The audiences of Antigone were full of suspense due to their knowledge of things the characters on stage didn't know.
5. The shepard was supposed to leave the infant on the mountainside with his knees pinned together.
6. The Sphinx's riddle was "What creature goes on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?"
7. Oedipus' kids are Polyneices, Eteocles, Antigone, and Ismene.
8. After Oedipus is exiled Jocasta's brother, Creon, takes over Thebes.
9.  Creon gave Eteocles a hero's burial and Polyneices body was left to rot outside the gate of Thebes.

Antigone Quick Write

Antigone Quick Write

            If I were in Antigone’s position I would be clueless, would I break the law and bury my brother or would I live a life of guilt? When it comes down to stressful situations I go in to a complete panic mode, but in this situation I would do what’s right and bury a family member that I love.

            No matter how scared I would be, I would stand up for what’s right as “If nothing matters there’s nothing to save.” It’s unjust for my uncle to bury my brother who started the battle, but leave my other brother for the scavenger birds to eat. So first, I would try to persuade my sister, who would say no due to her fear of execution and unlike Antigone, I wouldn't hold it against her because she was scared and I would understand her point of view on the situation.

            I would then study the correct time to execute my plan, likely to be at night. I would take some type of transportation for my brothers’ body and a shovel. When approaching the site of my brother I would take a lot of safety procedures to cover up the evidence and be aware of my surroundings.

            After retrieving his body I would take him to a remote location say my good byes and bury him. I would then start talking to people in the city of a removal of power from the king, my uncle, and his cruel rules.