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Jonathan Safran Foer Against Meat Summary

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Critique on Against Meat
Huzaifa Kaderjiwala
American University of Sharjah
Writing 102-41

Critique: Against Meat
Jonathan Safran Foer was conceived in 1977 in Washington D.C. He finished his graduation from Princeton college in 1990 with a degree in philosophy. For greater part of his life he went to medicinal school however he dropped out to follow his dreams and pursue a career as a writer. His novel, Everything Is illuminated is about the narrative of a youthful American youngster who goes to Ukraine looking for the lady who saved his dad from the Nazi's. Moreover, this book was adjusted into a film featuring Elijah Wood. This book likewise earned him a National Jewish …show more content…

Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarianism. But on the brink of fatherhood - facing the need to make dietary choices for his own child - his casual questioning took flight and drove him into some compelling research. His quest for answers lead him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of the meals from his childhood, and investigate some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong. He blends philosophy, literature, science, memoir and his own detective work, this chapter from his book, ‘Eating Animals’, as he explores the many beliefs and myths people use to justify their eating habits and also mentions things like global warming. Foer also describes his grandmother’s cooking and further talks about the lessons she has taught him throughout his life as he recalls his teenage …show more content…

Further, Foer uses logical fallacies as he says “quitting smoking is the easiest thing you can do, he did all the time. I would add vegetarianism to the list of easy things” (Foer ,2009, para15).

What we eat defines us and the author is unable to convince his readers mainly because when it comes to food all of us rationalize our food choices and ethics come into play however, I agree with the author that we shouldn’t eat meat because it harms the environment, but I also feel that the pros of eating meat heavily outnumber the cons and that isn’t a strong enough reason to convince his readers into quitting meat as it is quite beneficial for the body and is also delicious at the same time.

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Against Meat Or Not? In the article “Against Meat” written by Jonathan Safran Foer, the author attempts to state why he becomes a vegetarian. Foer begins by telling an emotional story of his grandmother’s relationship to food. Then he presents his own muddled relationship with vegetarianism up through parenthood.

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Jonathan Safran Foer’s Let them Eat Dog is a comical persuasive essay about the arbitrary boundaries that society places over the consumption of animals. He successfully points out the almost silly rules certain cultures place over eating certain animals, using the example that Americans generally viewing “eating ‘man’s best friend’ … as taboo”. (Foer 332) There are many different cultures around the world, each of which have their own general beliefs and social norms. One of these norms is what people should or should not eat.

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Growing up with a pescetarian mother (eating no meat other than fish) and omnivore father has not been the easiest of tasks. My mother likes to think she is holier-than-thou because of her diet, while my father just sits and laughs in the corner while eating a stack of ribs. When I read Alan Richmands excerpt “Fork It Over: My Beef with Vegans” I identified with his experiences with vegans because they were what I had experienced with my pescetarian mother over the years. Despite non meat eaters trying to convert meat eaters through persistent ranting, describing in great detail how the animals are raised and slaughtered (guilt tripping), and by trying to demonstrate that food made without animal products can taste just as good as those made with animal products a person can still make the decision to eat meat and enjoy it.

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Is eating meat a detrimental threat to the environment? This debate over meat’s involvement in the global warming crisis was what inspired Nicolette Hahn Niman to write, “The Carnivore’s Dilemma.” Niman hoped writing, “The Carnivore’s Dilemma,” would cause her audience to understand that eating meat, raised on traditional farms, was a superior alternative to vegetarianism. Niman supported her claim by explaining how industrialized farms and vegetarians produce more of the three greenhouse gases that caused global warming, than that produced by traditional farms. Niman’s article fell short of being effective due to flaws in her supporting evidence and conclusion.

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Introduction In this article “Against Meat” (2009) Jonathan Safran Foer explains his experience from a young age until the present struggling whether being a vegetarian or an omnivore because he doesn’t want to hurt animals at the same time he can’t resist food because it tasted good. Jonathan Safran Foer is an American novelist (born February 21, 1977) He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in philosophy, in his freshman year he took a writing class from the novelist Joyce Carol.

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This short story explains and questions how people find eating animals morally acceptable. Steiner 's short story explains that whenever people think these animals are being treated respectfully they are being ignorant to the fact of how these animals are truly treated; Steiner brings up the fact of how an animals typical horrid life is and how it transitions from its horrid life to being killed by a butcher in a matter of seconds. Moreover, Steiner also adheres to the topic of how unacceptable, it is to kill these animals just for human consumption. Steiner 's purpose in writing this short story is to display to us the fact that eating any animal is not only wrong, but it is just downright unacceptable as it is mass murder of these innocent animals. Finally, Steiner tries to define at his best, what a strict vegan truly

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In fact, within this claim he mentions dogs in a way that forces the reader to reflect on the claims he made about dogs earlier within the piece. Foer argues for the consumption of dog in a logical way in order to draw attention to a bigger issue: the treatment of animals in factory-farmed meat. While Foer might still be pro-eating dog, his entire argument that he presents throughout the essay is, essentially, a different perspective on the issue of factory-farmed meat. He relates this issue to the audience by bringing up a controversial topic, and while he may not convince his audience to eat dog, he at the very least shows that, logically, eating dog could make sense. Once he has made his point clear, he points to hypothetical situations of how dogs would be humanely prepared if they were to be eaten by stating, “we can all agree that if we’re going to eat them, we should kill them quickly and painlessly” (605).

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Namit Arora, author of the article “On Eating Animals”, harshly captures the inhumane production of meat in America with repulsive imagery and shocking details. Arora, writer at thehumanist.com, reveals the immediate attention that Americans give to their pets and news-famous animals like Molly a runaway cow, yet they neglect to realize the millions of livestock being killed daily. With an accusatory and critical tone Arora condemns the hypocrisy of those who are pro-life for animals, but they still consume meat products. In return, this clarifies the injustice towards these animals for his American readers and global viewers. Namit Arora’s devastating imagery underscores the brutality of American actions towards innocent animals with descriptions such as, “the cow, bellowing miserably and hobbling like a drunk for several seconds before collapsing” and, “...died on the street in a pool of blood.”

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Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals is a book about persuasion. Foer seeks to convince his readers to take any step in reducing what he believes is the injustice of harming animals. To achieve this, Foer employs many persuasion techniques and often changes his approach when he targets specific groups. His strategies include establishing himself as an ethical authority and appealing to his readers’ emotions, morals, and reason.

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As diets and health become more and more of a public concern in America. Two authors weigh in on their opinions on how the American public should handle the problem of obesity as well as their solutions to the overwhelming issue. In one article, “Against Meat,” published on the New York Times website in 2009, points out that the solution to obesity should be vegetarianism. Johnathan Foer who is a vegetarian, claims that his diet and way of living is his the way of improving health in the American public. Foer’s article provides a sense of humor as well as personal stories to attempt to persuade his audience for the ethical treatment of animals along with his personal solution for his own health and the health of his family.

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Experts recommend that adults eat just over half a pound of meat per week to help reduce their risk for diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and/or strokes. “We don’t eat animal products for sufficient nutrition, we eat them to have an odd form of malnutrition, and It’s killing us” (Bittman). There’s a simple way to reduce not only our calorie intake, but our carbon footprint as well: “less meat, less junk food, more plants” (Bittman). While Bittman makes some very compelling points about how much of the meat we produce and subsequently waste, he fails to take into account the affordability of meat because of it’s mass production, as well as the simple facts that most people lack the time needed to produce meals with fruits and

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The author restates the fact that dogs learn to make do with what is given them in New York City "Our [walk] together is a bit of conversation for the the burdens of civilization..." (Foer 215). In his main point, Foer his opinion on our relationships with animals. On how as we age our "warm and benevolent relationship with animals" becomes "cruel" (Foer 215-216). Is Foer saying that everyone should immediately become vegetarians?

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In An Animal’s Place, Michael Pollan describes the growing acknowledgement of animal rights, particularly America’s decision between vegetarianism and meat-eating. However, this growing sense of sentiment towards animals is coupled with a growing sense of brutality in farms and science labs. According to Pollan, the lacking respect for specific species of animals lies in the fact that they are absent from human’s everyday lives; enabling them to avoid acknowledgment of what they are doing when partaking in brutality towards animals. He presents arguments for why vegetarianism would make sense in certain instances and why it would not and ultimately lead to the decision of eating-meat while treating the animals fairly in the process. Pollan

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In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, the reader realizes just how much significance every passage has and how much it contributes to the rest of the novel. Slaughterhouse-Five is a novel about World War II experiences and journeys through time of Billy Pilgrim, from his time as an American soldier and chaplain's assistant, to postwar and early years. During the novel Billy experiences the events of his life in random order, moving from his past as an American prisoner of war in World War II, to his humdrum middle-class life in the present-day, to his future as a zoo curiosity on the planet Tralfamadore. One passage that summarizes one of the main themes in this novel is when Vonnegut says, “It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again.

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According to a survey conducted by the Humane Research Council of almost 12,000 people, 84 percent of vegetarians and vegans eventually go back to eating meat (Dahl). That is a colossal fail percentage. One may say that it is difficult to make such a drastic adjustment and that is why the fail percentage is so high. This theory can be disproven since the movement to stop smoking began in the same decade as the big push for animal rights and vegetarianism, in the 1970’s. Since then the percent of people who smoke has fallen 50 % while the percent of people who are not vegetarians has stayed the same, about 98% (Herzog).

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