Schlosser's Argumentative Analysis

The investigative journalist, Eric Schlosser, has written a book to illuminate an epidemic that started in America and is now becoming one of the world’s largest problems. In Fast Food Nation, Schlosser frames today’s Fast Food giants in history,American entrepreneurialism, and over consumption in respect to consumer and employee wellbeing. The power of all modern Fast Food giants combined have eclipsed the power of any one government. Marketing has become a key component to luring consumers to fast food. Schlosser makes the argument that a once All­American ideal, fast food has grown too big to control.

Throughout the best selling non-fiction novel, Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser dissects franchised food corporations and the industry that supplies these corporations. By revealing the history of of self made men who captured the American Dream such as Walt Disney and Ray Kroc, Schlosser convinces the reader that the road to riches was paved with self serving corporations. It is these corporations who intensified and widened the gap between the rich and poor. Schlosser makes persuasive arguments in Fast Food Nation, showing the reader that there are evils associated with big business and the general public is easily swayed to believe the fantasies these corporations regurgitates. Schlosser uses the three basic appeals known as ethos,

As chapter one was the most interesting to me so far, I have chosen to summarize and review it. The main theme in this chapter is to explain and describe the making of the fast food industry. Schlosser goes through the stories, inspiration and influences of, what he has entitled the chapter, “the founding fathers” the men who started the fast food industry.

Schlosser tells the history of how the fast food nation got its start with Carl Karcher and the McDonalds brothers as the first people to start the first fast food restaurants in California. Then he examines Ray Kroc and Walt Disney’s difficult relationship

When thinking of America most people tend to think of baseball and football games, apple pie, barebeques on the weekends and most importantly fast food. The fast food industry since it started in the early 1900’s has taken America by storm and forever altered the fundamentals of American society, as seen in Eric Schlosser’s informative novel Fast Food Nation. In his novel Schlosser gave his audience a behind the scenes look on how the fast food industry takes his viewers into the dark side of the fast food industry by exposing the greed of larger companies and its impact on smaller companies, and the injustices of the meat packing industry. It’s clear that throughout the whole novel Schlosser’s is against the giant fast food industry franchise.

From the territorial battles of the earliest humans, to the intense competitions between the most prosperous modern fast food chains, humans have always been bloodthirsty for success. In Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, he portrays the methods used to achieve success in one of the world’s largest industries. Through the claims made throughout the book, the author proves that there is a huge disparity between the level of success of corporations and individual workers in the fast food industry. Through his demonstration of society’s superficial ideals, the narrow-mindedness of fast-food corporations, and their cruelty towards those below them, Schlosser is able to effectively prove that success is not equally achievable for all fast-food workers.

In this quote, Schlosser shows the extent of power that the fast food industry has in America. Because of the cross-promotions that Hollywood and fast food restaurants have with each other, relationships have been formed between those in both industries. Due to this, Hollywood has recently started to employ fast food executives into the film industry. For instance, Susan Frank, who was a former director of national marketing for McDonald’s, became a marketing executive at the Fox Kids Network. Schlosser really opens the eyes of the readers with this report. People in the fast food industry not only control the food market, but now they’re starting to control the food industry, too? It’s mind boggling to see the authority these corporations

Eric Schlosser’s novel Fast Food Nation provides a deep insight into the systematic and unified world of the fast food industry. From the title alone, readers develop a clear sense of the author’s intention for writing this book. Schlosser’s purpose for writing the novel is to raise awareness about the impact and consequences of fast food industries on society. The purpose of the novel is achieved by the author’s use of personal stories, and by relating fast food to various aspects of society.

The fast food industry has taken over the world. Everywhere where people are there is bound to be at least one restaurant where the convenient, contagious, and cheap food is sold. Throughout this book Eric Schlosser, the author, keeps a negative tone towards the fast food industry and shows his readers how it has shaped the world to this day and how it will continue to shape the world, not always in the best way. His arguments all tie back to one major idea that he kept throughout the book which is that the fast food industry is a powerful force and one that needs to be reckoned with.

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, is categorized into two categories, “The American Way,” that examines the inauguration of the Fast Food Nation within the background of post World-War II in America and “Meat and Potatoes.” These two categories evaluate the industrialization of fast food, along with the dangers of consuming meat, the chemical flavoring of food, the working conditions of the meat industry, the global background of fast food, and the production of cattle. The book introduces the McDonald’s brothers and Carl N. Karcher which investigate their performance as developers in the fast food industry in California. This results to the inspection of Walt Disney and Ray Kroc’s intricate relationship on the rise to fame. All these well known

Eric Schlosser is one of the authors who describes the fast food phenomenon in his book Fast Food Nation. According to him, the biggest problem is the fast food industry that is increasing day by day. Fast food has affected not only the restaurants and the market, but also all the sectors of people's life, from the professional life to the personal one. This affirmation is sustained by Schlosser's statement: "Fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. " ( Schlosser 3 ) The fast food industry has got into institutions and parts of the world that no one believed would be affected. Moreover, the power of fast food can be seen by taking a look at the American individual, who gives fast food different

Back in the early 1920’s, America established the 18th Amendment which banned the distribution and consumption of alcohol for all its citizens. As a result of this prohibition, many Americans turned to various, other illegal machinations for the purposes of attaining the thing they want, including making unregulated alcoholic beverages and creating illegal criminal organizations, which in essence, created a sort of rift between the American people and its government. By 1933, the public views on banning the substance has shifted to the point where the federal government had no alternative, but to repeal the unfavorable ban of alcohol. Fast-forward to the early 20th century and to today’s situation, when the American public is currently facing a similar prohibition, but this time they face the

Schlosser was able to partially satisfy the criteria that a nonfiction book should include relevant anecdotes that help the reader connect to the fast food industry that causes health risks for its workers. He started the book off with chapter one solely on the relationship of Ray Croc, the owner of McDonalds, and Walt Disney. However, he was unable to incorporate the importance of the relationship into his overall claim regarding the disregard of workers and consumers health by the fast food companies. After he finished with the overly drawn out anecdote, he began to provide relevant anecdotes from actual workers in different jobs associated with the business. First he started with Elisa, a sixteen year old McDonald’s employee that wakes up at 5:15 every morning and spends seven hours behind the counter on her feet, and when she gets home her feet hurt. (pg. 68) He uses Elisa’s anecdote wisely since his readers can easily connect with her story

He wants to show a personal account of the difficulties that everyday people endure trying to accommodate different aspects of a fast food meal possible to the consumer. By stressing this, Schlosser also shows the need for the sanitation of fast food to be dealt seriously. He directs these ideas towards the less informed of American society. Schlosser wants to reach out to those that wish to become more informed of the fast food aspect of America, and to Americans, fast food has become a normal aspect of life. Even Professer Pothukuchi, of Wayne State University agrees that “fast food is destroying us: individuals, communities, work and family life, and indeed, our very connections with the world” (Pothukuchi 1). This book is intending the audience to steer away from what seems harmless, because fast food seems innocuous, when in reality is the opposite.

Schlosser shows us in this story two different subjects; fast food post WWII and how the food is made for Americans to eat. The first section of the novel, “The American Way’, is an introduction to the fast food world. It starts with the stories of the McDonalds brothers and Carl N. Karcher and their rise to become a pioneer of fast food industry. These pioneers found out how to make a business unlike anything America had ever experienced before. These pioneers found business in the West Coast to start off then expanded. This novel talks about how these pioneers made their companies work, how the kitchens ran and how they found out methods that were efficient. The first section also brings us to Colorado Springs, CO. Here, it shows us the life of fast food employees, the working conditions these employees face everyday and it explains their minimum wage pay. The second section, “Meat and Potatoes”, is about what goes in the food/the taste. Schlosser goes into great detail about where the