Summary Of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation

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Eric Schlosser, a journalist, writes Fast Food Nation, which asserts the dangers and maltreatment of slaughterhouses. Through interviews and descriptions of workers, Schlosser depicts the careless and desperate conditions of the workers. Schlosser’s evident purpose is to bring awareness to the dangers that come with a job in a slaughterhouse. He intends to draw the attention of supervisors and authoritative figures, so he integrates a sense of normality when depicting the disturbing job. Schlosser begins with a simple depiction of the disturbing and unrestrained working conditions by implicating pity and disgust. Despite their limited breaks, some workers must do “nothing but stand in a river of blood” for the entirety of their shift, and others …show more content…

After Schlosser delineates the basic functions of the slaughterhouse, he moves to interviews with some of the employees to emphasize the gruesome experience. While interviewing Kenny, a worker in rendering, Schlosser found he had had to sanitize tanks with chlorine in casual clothes, and his boss “gave him a paper dust mask to wear,” representing the unsafe and unhygienic environment of the slaughterhouse. (20) Due to the damage from the chlorine, Kenny was reassigned to a new shift where he “would’ve been killed” from an accident, but he continued to work at the Greely plant where he experienced and saw many incidents occur. Having knowledge of the disturbing experiences at the slaughterhouse inflicts pity and brings awareness to the tribulations slaughterhouse employees face. To close the essay, Schlosser further explains Kenny’s experience at a careless job, which causes a sense of sorrow as the different stories continue. In one of the interviews, Kenny depicts a heroic moment in which he “pulled [a worker] away from the machine an instant before it would have pulverized him,” so Kenny received a certificate to honor his valorous