Literature Paper on Rhetorical Strategies of The American Way of Eating
The contemporary society faces numerous emerging issues and challenges. The society must come up with innovative ways of addressing the ever-challenging issues various people face. In this regard, different scholars have expressed their perspectives on matters of greediness in the contemporary society. Through various writings, the authors have always intended to voice their thoughts on challenging issues in the society. Precisely, McMillan’s The American Way of Eating, McKibben’s Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, and Savory’s Keeping Cattle: Cause or Cure for Climate Crisis form the central theme of this discussion. The paper majorly focuses on how the aspect of greedy unfolds in all these three excerpts.
Primarily, The American Way of Eating is an undercover story where McMillan aims to discover whether people consume healthy food. To uncover a clear picture of greediness in these industries, McMillan employs an unusual technique: she works in a set of unskilled jobs to build the key view on the matter. She best illustrates this as from farm to plate (McMillan 15). McMillan operates in three areas. Firstly, she works in California farmland where she is involved in sorting peaches, cutting garlic and picking grapes. Secondly, McMillan works at Walmart; this presents her with a clear depiction on how people serve for long hours in places of work with little pay. Primarily, she attributes to the nature of greed that is engulfed the food and retail sector. Finally, she works in a busy Applebee in Brooklyn, New York. Importantly, McMillan uses pathos in this excerpt to attract the motion of the audience. Notably, she creates a strong narrative tension that unpacks how food industries frustrate their workforce with delayed payments (McMillan 20). Thus, this triggers emotions of the audience on the issues discussed. In her article, she also employs logos to give clear evidence on the issue presented in her work. McMillan shows the entire food chain operations and the difficulties that the laborers have to endure in the workstation. Working extra hours without an adequate compensation is a challenge to the society. In a wider domain, greed is the key aspect that characterizes these industries. McMillan establishes this fact by herself and realizes that many people undergo serious challenges. A society suffering from greed makes the proletariats as well as low-wage earners to feel a real pressure of such actions. Thus, sanity in the society is essential to help such group of people from exploitation by the elites in the community. Greediness makes it hard for such proletariat to have a proper standard of living.
Similarly, McKibben addresses another serious issue in the contemporary society, particularly the issue of global warming, which he attributes to human greed in the society. The rate of global warming is a huge concern for McKibben. To some extent, he applies some rhetorical technics to present his work in a more inclusive manner. For instance, in his visualization of the future, McKibben uses ethos to enhance credibility as well as trustworthiness to the points he put across. The pleasing and the ironically conservative revolutionary movements are some of the areas he bases his points (McKibben 30). Creating small and self-sustaining communities that produce their energy, cultivate their organic food would be essential. Issues such as deforestations are some aspects of human greed that largely contributes to global warming. Deforestation is a grave threat to the environment. Nonetheless, some greedy individuals who do not comprehend the significance of trees in the environment practice it. It can be controlled in a more structured manner so that the environment remains safe and gets more ground in the fight against global warming. He warns that on failing to accomplish such things, the society can be ravaged by the conflicts of food, water, and other essential commodities. To support this notion, he uses logos where he cites the 2004 Pentagon report stating that conflicts over vital resources were common until recent centuries and may resurface before humanity due to the effects of climatic changes. Greedy individuals propagated conflicts while fighting for available resources.
The environmental documentary by Allan Savory attempts to address the issue of greed, where certain human activities have been responsible for this detrimental process. The main theme here is to depict that desertification is a resultant of greediness where some people keeps a huge number of livestock that environment cannot sustain. It continues to present that livestock contributes to the problem of climate change. Nonetheless, they can be part of the solution to this menace that currently threatens the world.
In conclusion, the excerpts attempt to explain how greediness has engulfed the society. The articles also provide serious solutions to the problems that people face in the current society. Both authors use the first-hand experience to explain the idea. Additionally, they highlight these challenges and their causes, therefore, grounding the solutions on scientific research. For example, McMillan provides an excellent insight into the contentious and multifaceted debate on how greed affects food system in America. The society is full of greedy industries that do not respect their workforce. Underpayment with long working hours is a norm in such sectors. The rhetorical strategies employed by the authors have flourished in exploring and explaining how greediness impacts the society.
Works Cited
McKibben, Bill. Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. Vintage Books Canada, 2011.
McMillan, Tracie. The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee’s, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.
Savory, Allan. “Keeping Cattle: Cause or Cure for Climate Crisis”. https://vimeo.com/8291896. Accessed 19 April 2017.