FFN 4

The term slaughterhouse should paint a mental picture of what one is like. Slaughterhouse may be considered very disgusting and nasty places because the purpose of them are to kill and butcher livestock for retail and industrial use. Up until chapters seven and eight of Fast Food Nation, slaughterhouses were unclear as far as how the ran. Initially slaughterhouses were pictured as places where livestock was killed and butchered, yet the slaughterhouses were kept sanitary and the unused organs and excess blood was disposed of properly. Slaughterhouses were not necessarily viewed as a place where the animals were treated like kings before they were slaughtered, but I didn't picture the animals getting thrown around quite so much. However, after reading about slaughterhouses, I now have a true explicit picture about the environment of slaughterhouses.

In today's day and age, beef is a very popular food choice. Thus the need arises to quickly produce and meat for the consumers. To produce meat quickly, slaughter houses are required to increase production by butchering a higher quantity of cattle in a shorter time span.  Now that slaughterhouses need to have a higher output of cattle, "Some plants are killing up to 400 head of cattle an hour," (173). That seems like an unnecessary amount of cattle to be killed in a day, but it is the amount of cattle that will support today's American diet.

Another thing about slaughterhouses that was surprising when the author was "Walking through blood that is ankle deep," (169). If slaughterhouses are killing up to 400 head of cattle per day, there will be a lot of blood and it will be everywhere. I figured that there would be high amounts of blood within the slaughterhouses. However, I assumed that the slaughterhouses would have an efficient way to clean up and dispose of the blood. It is disgusting to think about how messy the slaughterhouses are when they are dealing with the food people eat.

FFN 3

Whether it is the smell of a Whopper from Burger King or the smell of Easy Mac from your microwave, your food has natural or artificial flavors. The food consumed in today's day and age deceives the consumer. Consumers tend to think that food they eat gets its flavor from natural ingredients. However, when food is processed, it looses its flavor. Food companies then were required to find ways to maintain flavor in the food after processing. Those food companies then hired scientists to create flavors that would remain in the food even after processing. That is where natural and artificial flavors come in, scientists constantly work in labs trying to create the next best flavor, whether it is "vanillin," an ingredient created in a lab "often found in strawberry milkshakes," or the flavor of the cheese packets in Macaroni and Cheese (125-126).

Found within the cupboards of the Streff house is the ultimate hazelnut spread Nutella. It was appalling to se that the delicious Nutella had vanillin in it, one of the natural flavors listed within Fast Food Nation. Even though it is discusting to think about consuming the natural flavor of vanillin, Nutella remains the favorite hazelnut spread on the market. Another food found within the Streff household that contains artificial or natural flavors was my beloved Nesquik. Nesquik is consumed almost daily to enhance the flavor of ordinary milk. It was interesting to see that foods consumed daily contain artificial and natural flavors. Initially, it was appalling to think about consuming foods that had flavors created within a lab, but after having some time to think about the foods with artificial and natural flavors, the realization appeared, "At least they (the foods) taste good."

FFN 2

In the first four chapters of Fast Food Nation, there have been numerous surprising facts about fast food. First off, reading that Ray Kroc, a man affiliated with McDonald's, and Walt Disney, the face of Disney, "knew each other as young men," and "[they] both dropped out of high school," was quite surprising (33).   It is hard to imagine that Ray Kroc and Walt Disney, two people who are affiliated with top companies in their profession, knew each other before their "attempt to merge companies."

Another thing that surprising fact was that "about two thirds of robberies at fast food restaurants [were from] current or former employees" (84). Seriously, it is pointless to rob a business, you will get caught. These days there are cameras everywhere, and the business would already have your information. Be smarter than that people, don't rob stores.

Finally, it was surprising that "16,000 current and former employees were owed money by the company (Taco Bell). (75)" How is a company able to get away with owing that many people money? If that continues to happen, the government should try to support those people who were screwed over by their employers.

Those were some of the surprising things within the first four chapters of  Fast Food Nation.

Fast Food Nation Blog 1

The author is correct when he says that businesses try to get children to nag their parents so that the parents will purchase the item for their children form the business. Even though children are young, they can be very influential when it comes to the items their parents purchase. If a child nags his or her parents enough, his or her parents will eventually purchase the item the child wants, whether it is a happy meal or a candy bar. Parents tend to listen to their child so that they won’t have an unhappy child on the parent’s hands.

            When I was younger, I have successfully nagged my parents into purchasing me what I wanted. Because nagging worked so well, I would use it more and more often. However, throughout recent years, nagging hasn’t worked so well for me. Perhaps my parents think that I am old enough to have to earn things that I would like to have.

             In a similar case, my younger siblings can successfully nag our parents into getting what they want. I think that because my younger siblings are the ‘babies’ of the family, they often receive special treatment. More often than not, my younger siblings will get to decide what our family does or where our family eats. This occurs because my younger siblings tend to nag our parents more than I do.

             All in all, I agree with the author when he says that children can get their parents to purchase what the children want, however, it works less when the children become older, unless they are the ‘babies’ of the family.

    The ending of this story absolutely shocked me. In many stories I’ve read, the ending seems more settling than the ending of this novel. At the end of this book, a series of events occurs that one wouldn’t expect. Lennie accidentally killed his pup, he accidentally hurt and killed Curley’s wife, and George killed Lennie.

    

    Lennie became rather excited when he received his very own pup. He played with his pup as often as he could, but he bounced it too hard and killed it. Once he realized he killed his pup, he became utterly frightened and frantically tried to find a way to cover up his mistake.

    

    When Curley’s wife visited Lennie, she vented her feelings to him, and she had Lennie feel her soft hair. Lennie’s fingers got tangled within Curley’s wife’s hair, she started to scream and fight to get free. However, Lennie’s strength came into effect and Lennie accidentally murdered her. Lennie then tried to hide her body and evaded the scene of the crime.

   

    Once the men from the ranch found Curley’s wife’s demised body in the barn, they went out searching for Lennie. George moved ahead of the group and found Lennie. George told Lennie about the acreage they would own, the crops they would have, and the rabbits Lennie would get to tend. George then took the gun out of Lennie’s pocket, and shot and killed Lennie on the spot.

Microcosm

 The characters in Of Mice and Men all represent different people in society. First off, George would be described as a caring parent. George constantly watches over Lennie, directs him to do the right thing, and tells him stories. On the other hand, Lennie represents a young child. Lennie constantly gets into trouble although he doesn't realize it. Carlson represents the working man. He puts in many laborious hours just to get by. Candy could be described as the stereotypical man of a family. He provides the majority of the money for the farm that he, George, and Lennie will invest in. Slim is similar to the school counselors of today. He cares and talks to anyone without showing discrimination. Curley’s wife signifies those who enter a relationship, but aren't committed. She constantly gave other men “the eye” even though she recently married Curley. Crooks symbolizes the people who are left out, those who are all alone and who have absolutely nobody to talk to.