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.