Dog Food Fried, Flipped and Devoured
Eating dog food may not be seen as the easiest thing to stomach because the smell, texture and by-products found within the mixture are thought of as awful and revolting. In Ann Hodgman’s “No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch”, although the title may suggest otherwise, different types of dog food are discussed. In this essay, Hodgman aims to inform her readers about the inequality in different types of dog food, as well as to entertain and amuse. Hodgman is writing to a broad audience, one of dog lovers and owners, as well as those that may be curious as to what is really in dog food, or more generally the packaging and processing of mass-produced food of any kind. Language, description and humor are
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For example, the author discusses a ‘lite’ dog food and how the most positive part of the meal was that it didn’t make her fat (313). There is also a small amount of irony in the essay through the idea of a taste-testing going on, although it is not the pleasant experience of its connotation. The effect of this hilarity creates a stronger contrast between the subject of the essay and comedic tone of the writer.
In using the different techniques of language, description and humor, the author effectively creates a bond with the reader, while at the same time informing and entertaining. At the core of this essay, Hodgman is looking at how we view not only our dog’s processed and packaged food, but ours as well. Implied in the text are the questions regarding how well we take care of our pets and ourselves. I think that the largest unknown within the essay is the question of how she made it through the smell, texture and appearance of all this dog food. This leaves us being reminded that if you’re determined, there will be a way to make it through the mock bone marrows and the Butcher’s Blends and perhaps find a little bit more in food, and in life, than oily nuggets and canned by-products. (553)
Works Cited
Hodgman, Ann. "No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch." The Nelson Introduction to
Literature. Eds. Al Valleau and Jack Finnbogason. Canada: Nelson, 2004. 311 –
314.
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Ann Hodgman, a freelance writer and former food critic, decides to write a review of various types of dog foods in her piece, “No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch.” The research aims to answer the questions that always puzzled her as a child. Questions about the ingredients in the dog foods and whether it taste like human food. The writer spends a week eating dog food to answer these questions. Her results, however, reveals a disappointing truth that dog food is not as glamorous as she once thought, instead it lacks the quality, health and taste it advertises.
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People have no idea what occurs in the canning room at Durham’s. The chemists advertise mushroom catsup. In reality, the men who made these don’t even know what they look like. They would put animal 's body parts that humans wouldn 't eat into the cans. “ "De-vyled" ham was made out of the waste ends of smoked beef that was too small to be sliced by the machines; also tripe, dyed with chemicals so, that it would not show white . Finally the hard cartilaginous gullets of beef, after the tongues, had been cut out” (Sinclair).” mixing all these animal parts they created a new mixture which tasted like something, then sold it which would earn them a great amount of wealth.They gave cows tuberculous to make them gain weight quickly. They were putting the horses in the canned food, later banned the practice because the newspaper exposed them. Now it is against the law (Sinclair).”
Pollan first establishes his ethos by citing nutritionist Joan Gussow. This shows us that he has done his research in the field and provides his reflection to her speech; this makes him appear more as an equal peer talking to us about why food should be redefined. He continues to draw the reader in by bringing a pathos aspect; bringing up your great grandmother. Pollan explains, “We need to go back at least a couple of generations to a time before the advent of most modern foods” (107). He continues to encourage the reader to imagine grocery shopping with your great grandmother. Pollan brings an emotional aspect to making the reader reminisce about great grandmother’s cooking and possibly remorsefully reflect how grandma would complain about how unhealthy food is today. Then he tells us to avoid foods she would not recognize as a food that contains familiar ingredients, no extra additives
The author of the story “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Roald Dahl, uses a significant amount of irony throughout the story. Dahl uses irony to make his story more appealing to the reader by keeping them engaged. An example of irony in the story is when Mary is six months pregnant and her husband expresses he is leaving her, so she murders him. The audience would have never seen this coming because the author expresses Mary’s feelings from the beginning of the story by saying, “She loved him for the way he sat loosely in a chair, for the way he came in the door or moved slowly across the room with long strides. She loved the intent, far look in his eyes when they rested on her, the funny shape of the mouth, and especially the way he remained silent about his tiredness, sitting still with himself until the whiskey had taken some of it away.” (Dahl 1-2). When Dahl shares Mary’s feelings, the reader concludes that Mary is an innocent, loving wife that truly loves her husband and would do absolutely anything for him. But when Mary murders him after he decides to leave, situational irony appears. This is an example of situational irony because the reader would never expect Mary to murder her husband, but the exact opposite occurs. Dahl also uses situational irony as an example of language. The language makes the story more intriguing and exciting. The situational irony is used in the story to shock the reader and to create the climax of the plot.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a comprehensive look into the present day food culture of the United States. Throughout the book the author tries to find out the true composition of the diet that is consumed by Americans on a daily basis. There is an excessive dependence by the American population on the government to know which food is good for them. This paper will critically analyze the book as well as the stance that the author has taken. Since there is a deluge of information about diets and health available today, the relevance of this well researched book in the present day world cannot be emphasized enough. Its relevance is not limited to the United States alone but to the entire human society which is moving towards homogenous food habits.
Schlosser employs anecdotes in order to evoke emotion from his readers to achieve his purpose. One anecdote the author includes is the story of Alex Donley, a six year old boy. Alex Donley ate a “tainted hamburger” from Jack-in-the-box that led him to become infected with “E. coli 0157:H7”(Schlosser 200). This disease obliterated his entire body and progressed rapidly. Alex died within five days. The author uses anecdotes such as Alex’s to evoke sympathy and fear from his readers, especially parents with young children. The stories make parents and anyone who buys fast food reconsider what they are putting in their bodies for if a young boy can die from a simple burger, then what’s to prevent others, kids, or even one’s self from becoming the next victim in the vicious industry that is fast food? The use of anecdotes ultimately helps the author unveil the beast that is the fast food industry by pulling on the heartstrings of Americans.
She told the audience to “just eat food.” She claimed that food for sale in the supermarkets do not deserve to be called food. In the same speech she said that real food is disappearing from supermarkets and from the eating world. Pollen states that ordinary food is still being sold and what we should eat but, it is hard to find. He then proposes rules to help find ordinary foods. The first rule is not to eat anything that our great-grandmother would not recognize as food. He then gives an example of Go-Gurt. He says your great-grandmother would not know it was yogurt or toothpaste. He then elaborates on the ingredients in yogurt today vs. what your great-grandmother would consider yogurt-milk inoculated with a bacterial culture. He then names some other foods our ancestors would not recognize such as Twinkies. He says that he has a personal policy of not eating anything incapable of rotting. Food science lies to our bodies; artificial colors, flavors, synthetic sweeteners, and novel fats affect the senses that we rely on to assess new foods. Historically, food has been processed in order to preserve them but, industrial processing aims to do much more than extend shelf life. Today’s foods are designed to sell us more food by pushing our evolutionary buttons-our inborn preferences for sweetness, fat, and salt. He says that the FDA lets food makers freely alter traditional
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