Ehrenreich describes the American dining experience and diners as such:
“Ten British tourists who seem to have made the decision to absorb the American experience entirely by mouth. Here everyone has at least two drinks - iced tea and milk shake, Michelob and water (with lemon slice in the water, please) - and a huge, promiscuous orgy of breakfast specials, mozz sticks, chicken strips, quesadillas, burgers with cheese and without, sides of hash browns with cheddar, with onions, with gravy, seasoned fries, plain fries, banana splits. Poor Jesus! Poor me!” (Ehrenreich, 47).
In this description, Ehrenreich observes how foreigners view the “American experience entirely by mouth”. She emphasizes the volume of food by italicizing the word ‘and’ in between the customers’ orders, which shows how unnecessary multiple drinks are. Following the drink orders are the food orders, and while many American may not order meals similar to this, Ehrenreich is able to show the American dining stereotype, which appears excessive. She exclaims at the end of the quote, “Poor Jesus! Poor me!”, which is able to show how Ehrenreich clearly feels about the order: a feast of unnecessary food.
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She boldly calls the order of breakfast specials a ‘promiscuous orgy’. Using this description, the diners’ order was an excessive and haphazard selection of foods. In addition, Ehrenreich lists off every food with each of its modifications to show how enormous the order was. To include these details critiques how diners do not stop to think what they are ordering, and order anything that will make them happy. So, each small detail further exaggerates the absurdity of superfluous