Jack Morgan
Harper
English 10
11/5/14

Summary of Chapters 5-8

In the novel, "Fast Food Nation," Eric Schlossen takes a look at the step by step process that goes into the making of a fast food meal.  All of the items that you find on the menus at fast food places, such as french fries, hamburgurs, and chicken entrees, are produced as cheeply and efficiently as possible in order to obtain maximum profit.  Not only is maximum profit one of the main goals for fast food companies, but maximum flavor is as well.  The author highlights how the use of natural flavor in the ingrediants of fast food items is designed so every single product will always taste the same every time it is ordered.  Even the french fries, fried strips of potatoes, have natural flavor added to them.  What seems like a relatively healthy, tasty compliment to your meal is actually riddled with chemicals that make the consumer crave the next bite.  The chickens that are used to make chicken items at fast food resturaunts are also modified to satisfy the consumer.  The chickens used in the making of Mcdonal's famous mcnuggets are genetically modified so they have bigger breasts.  The mcnuggets also do not come from the breast meat of a single chicken, as it is simply chunks of brest meat from different chickens clumped together.  Eric Schossen also mentions how meat used in a fast food hamburger has to go through dirty, chemical filled slaughterhouses before it is edible.  Similar to the chicken mcnuggets, a fast food hamburgur does not contain meat from a single cow, but up to 100 cows.  The author also notes how these slaughterhouses where the meat is produced are among the most dangerous places to work in America.

Slaughterhouses like this one are among some of the most dangerous places to work in the United States.  The injury rate at slaughterhouses is 3 times higher than the rate at a normal factory.  Roughly 40,000 men and women suffer a work related injury each year.

Topic: Food

Essential Question:  How does chemically altered food affect the body?

Claim:  Foods with synthetic chemicals have bad effects on the body leading to obesity and other diseases.

Reason:  The chemicals in fast food are used to enhance the flavor of the food but can lead to heart disease and diabetes.  Fast food restaurants claim to have healthy, fresh ingredients, but what is in those ingredients might surprise you.  In my book, Fast Food Nation, the author explains how the chemicals added to you favorite fast food items are actually designed to make them taste better.  These chemicals can also increase the risk of serious health issues.  

Jack Morgan

Harper

English 10

28 April 2014

Summary of Section 1 “The American Way”

In, “Fast Food Nation,” Eric Schossen informs America about the fast food industry and gives insight on what is happening in the kitchen at your favorite fast food restaurants.  The idea of ‘fast food’ started in Anaheim, California in the early 1900’s.  From that point on, the fast food industry has taken off like nobody would have expected.  What started off as selling good, cheap hamburgers turned into an industry that dominates the world today.  Through creative advertising techniques and some unique menu items that you can’t find at normal sit down restaurants, fast food has become an American staple.  In populated areas, you don’t have to go far to run into a fast food chain, as the author points out that part of the marketing technique is to place as many restaurants as possible in a certain area. This section also focuses on what fast food employees have to go through when working behind the counter at a fast food chain.  When the fast food industry was first starting, the employees would actually cook the food and serve it to the customers.  Now, this book points out how the chains are developing special food making machines. All the workers have to do is place the pre-made, frozen food item in a machine to cook it to ideal specifications for the customer to consume. Data shows how fast food resturaunts are becoming more and more dangerous to work at.  Due to many fast food restaurants being cash only,  fast food robberies are very abundant in the United States, with an average of 1 robbery per every 20 minutes.  The author concludes that as fast food resturaunts are becoming increasingly popular, working conditions are becoming worse as the average age of a fast food employee continues to drop year after year.

Mcdonald's resturaunt first opened in the early 1940's by Richard and Maurice Mcdonald.  The drive-in was known as, "Mcdonald's Famous Hamburgurs."



Schlosser, Eric. Fast food nation: the dark side of the all-American meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print.

Most people eat either eggs or breakfast cereal.  Surprisingly 30% of people don't even eat breakfast. Most people eat dessert one or two days a week.  For exercise most people do organized sports.  Most people eat out 6-10 times a month.  Most people are not drinking enough water, and they are only drinking 2-3 glasses a day.

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Discussion question 3

What qualities does Charlie have that make him the hero of this story? What do those qualities say about Roald Dahl’s opinions of children? 

Charlie is what Roald Dahl thinks of as a 'perfect child', and all of the other children are used as examples of what Roald Dahl thinks flawed children are.  In the book, Charlie is a loving, unselfish young boy living in poverty with his large family.  "Here Mother, have a bit.  We'll share it.  I want everybody to taste it" (29).  He seems to always do what is right, and that trait has earned him much respect throughout his family.  These are the traits that Roald Dahl believes that every good child should have.  However, Charlie does make one selfish act in this book.  This occurs when he finds a dollar on the street and he uses it to by himself a couple of chocolate bars.  The one selfish act that Charlie commits just happens to be the most pivotal point in the book, for one of those chocolate bars just happened to have a golden ticket inside.  The other children are examples of what Roald Dahl thinks that some children are like in society.  He was very harsh about this, and he used some very extreme examples.  In the end, all of the other children were forced to leave the tour due to their selfish acts.  They all had their major flaws that made them different from the 'perfect child'.  Roald Dahl made this very clear in his book.  He was trying to send a message to all of the boys and girls and forcing them to make comparisons to the 5 characters.  On the back of the book, it says, "...and Charlie Bucket, our Hero, a boy who is honest and kind..."  (back).  Notice the word, our, in that sentence.  Roald Dahl is trying to say how Charlie is the savior of the book.  He is trying to get the readers to understand that there are many selfish and spoiled children in the world and that Charlie is the 'last hope'.  By saying the word, our, he is forcing the audience to 'root' for Charlie so they can realize how flawed the other children are.  Although the other children did make mistakes that nearly cost them their lives, it is hard to resist when you are in such a magical place.  The children where just in the moment and where to young to realize what they were doing was a mistake.  In the end, Charlie Bucket was the last one remaining, and the hero of the book got the biggest reward of his life, Wonka's Factory.     

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Discussion question 2

Discuss what Oompa Loompas represent in today's society.

Oompa Loompas represent the hardworking middle class.  Oopma Loompas, formaly from Loompaland, are the workers inside of Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory.  "They are wonderful workers.  They all speak english now.  They love dancing and music.  They are always making up songs"  (71).  Whenever an Oompa Loompa is encountered in the story, there always seems to be a fun and heartwarming vibe.  Not once so far has an Oompa Loompa been described as being miserable.  This sort of working environment is similar to the environment at Google.  In English class, we watched a video about how Google gives their employees a fun work environment with plenty of fun activites that they can participate in outside of the office.  Similar to the Oompa Loompas in Wonka's factory, the Google employees seem to always have a smile on their face.  However, working at Google can be a very tough job, and the employees are not afraid to admit it.  The job is not right for everyone, for Google handpicks their employees based on their unique talents.  At Wonka's factory, the Oompa Loompas are used for various testings, some which can be incredibly fatal.  "I've tried it twenty times on twenty oompa loompas, and every one of them finished up as a blueberry" (98).  Also, living their entire lives in a factory, as magical as it is, probably doesn't appeal to the Oompa Loompas.  However way you look at it, there is no perfect job.  Every job has it's minor, or even major, setbacks.  Although Oompa Loompas can be viewed as tiny workers living the dream, they still have to get up every morning and do what middle class citizens do every day: work.

Connect Charlie to Michael Drysch

The book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is one that just about everyone can enjoy.  A heartwarming tale, this book has many themes and characters that many people can appreciate or even relate to.  The main character, Charlie Bucket, receives the opportunity of a lifetime to go and visit, "the largest and most famous chocolate factory in the world!" (7).  He goes from a young boy living in poverty, to a celebrity as millions of people would die to be in the position he is in.  This theme of, "going from nothing to something" is a theme that really interests me.  I think it is really cool to learn about the paths that some people have taken to get to the point that they are at.  You can learn alot from them in both a positive and negative way.  The man that I decided to use as an example for this theme is Michael Drysch.  Michael was just a computer technician from the state of Illinois.  Then, similar to Charlie, along came this once in a lifetime opportunity to sink a halfcourt shot for $75,000 during a Heat vs. Pistons game in Miami.  He was one of 30,000 contestants that entered to take part in the halftime show.  Similar to Charlie, the odds were not in his favor.  In the end, however, the odds didn't matter, for Mike received this opportunity and ran with it.  He appeared in the halftime show on January 25, 2013, and guess what?  He drained the halfcourt shot.  It was no bank or lucky bounce off the rim either, it was a pure swoosh.  Instantly, the video of him making the shot went viral.  He appeared in several commercials and even on the hit TV show, Good Morning America.  He went from a normal, middle-class american citizen to a celebrity by receiving an opportunity that will define him for the rest of his life, kind of like Charlie.

In the world of twitter, users can "tweet" messages 140 characters or less for other users to see.  The twitter icon is represented by a blue background and a white bird in the center, hense the term,"tweet". 

I think that this article about a school monitoring social media is a bit extreme.  I am going to use my favorite social media site, twitter, as an example. I am all for the protection of students, but I think that monitoring something like twitter is something that can't happen.  Twitter is a fun way to express your thoughts to your friends.  If kids are bullying someone so bad over something like twitter, then chances are someone will see it and put a stop to it.  The person that is being bullied can even block the person who is bullying them, so they can't even see the harmful tweets anyway.  For this reason, I think it is unnecessary for a school to barge in on student's personal lives.  It is unnecessary, and it is not what most kids want. Student Social Media Debate

If SRVHS were to enforce a social media monitoring system, I would go crazy. Should Schools Monitor Social Media Accounts? Twitter is very popular amongst students here at our schoool, and is one of my favorite things to use in my free time.  If I knew that the school was aware of everything that I tweeted, it would take the fun out of twitter. Students are already constantly monitored at school and by their parents, and twitter is one of the last places where they can share their thoughts independently.  We're aware that everything tweeted can be seen by everyone and anyone, and even if you delete the tweet, it is still out there on the internet. Watch What you Tweet That, in my opionion, is all of the monitoring that is needed, and any extra monitoring is a waste of money and is unnecesarry.

This chart shows how physical bullying is much more common than cyberbullying.  Therefore, schools should focus more on preventing physical bullying.