TOW #12: IRB- Eating Animals

Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, is a detailed investigation about how we “truly” obtain our food that we devour on a daily basis. While his purpose if to inform the public about the “sketchy” procedures of the food industry, and it definitely is under the radar of the public’s knowledge. With his book being the basis of an investigation, the audience is obviously and average American, mostly because in order to inform the public about what our food industries are doing behind our backs, he needs to inform the common man about this issue.

Foer uses a variety of devices in order to make this investigation more appealing to the common man, because for the most part, many Americans with the typical background would much rather read a text with some humor and facts rather than a textbook. Foer accomplishes this with the use of humor. For example, when describing an issue regarding with the chickens we eat, Foer calls this process “bullshit” and even follows it up with the Webster’s definition of Bullshit. Not only does this spice up his text and add some humor, but it allows his to achieve his purpose because it shows how this issue is absolutely ridiculous since we continue to eat, but not even know “exactly” what we are actually eating. 

Foer also uses the device of personal anecdotes to achieve his purpose. With starting the story with a personal anecdote of his personal predicaments regarding food such as him deciding on becoming a vegetarian or not, the audience will now feel that “common experience” since almost every person has that one scenario regarding their food choices as well. This device Foer used was crucial for his text’s success as it was the almost “hook” for him to switch from his personal experiences that would attract the audience, and then guide him to informing them about his purpose. Overall, I think Foer is definitely achieving his purpose so far (I’m only halfway done the book), and I think he orchestrated both an informative, but also interesting book about the food we eat everyday.