Please read Eric Schlosser's piece, "The Most Dangerous Job," starting on Page 654 in Presence.
Schlosser does a good job describing what goes on in meat packing plants.
Pick a descriptive passage from the story and tell us, in 200 words, what makes it so compelling.
This is due by the start of class on Wednesday, Sept. 22
I chose paragraph eight in the passage of "The most dangerous job by Eric Schlosser. I chose this paragraph, because to me it was the most descriptive. It gave a lot of imagery. This paragraph talks about the person in the slaughter house known as the "sticker". It goes on to say how the sticker just stands there, and cuts the carotid artery of every cow to come through the house. This was the goriest sentence i have ever read in my life. I didn't want to picture this in my head, but the way the author describes it using perfect imagery, that is all you can see. It goes on after that to say that the sticker hits that spot over, and over again. This part kind of reminds me of horror films, I have seen in the past. Like the paragraph says how he is standing in a pool of blood drenched in blood. The guy that does this job is like a murderers in those movies drenched in peoples blood, because animals are just like people. How he can kill cow after cow is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteI also picked this passage as well. The brutal imagery and descriptave words just make the visual terrifying. This is a job for someone with a strong stomach and amazing will power. I hunt so i have to gut my game and that did take some getting used to but i can do it. This passage reminds me of watching someone gut a deer. Just the blood dripping out of the hanging carcass and the entrails being ploped into a bucket. The scernary and words just flow in a horrific melody that can't stop without tearing your heart out. This passage really stuck out in my mind and I liked it very much so.
ReplyDeleteI couldn’t just write about one paragraph so I chose paragraphs eleven to fourteen in the Eric Schlosser reading. The small passage that I found interesting was about sharp knives used in the slaughterhouse. The first sentence jumped out to me because I found the names of the job assignments inside the slaughter house a bit funny. In this passage it discusses how this job is the most dangerous job in the United States, which I had no idea that it was. I found this a descriptive passage because it goes into details about multiple injuries suffered by the workers. During this job people get injured by cutting themselves or one another and also inherent disorders, back problems and a carpal tunnel syndrome when your fingers become frozen. I never knew how much danger you can be in while working in the meatpacking industry I thought you had certain equipment that protects you from those injuries. It says in the passage that some even get injured from one another. How is that possible to cut someone else with your sharp knife? You should be trained to use it if these accidents keep on happening. If these injuries keep on happening I suggest training should be mandatory before hiring.
ReplyDeleteI was also having a hard time choosing which paragraph, so I choose paragraphs 7 through 12.
ReplyDeleteThese paragraphs talk about the process in which the cows go thorough to become hanging slabs of meat.The way he puts the words together builds a kind of scenery in your mind of gore and suspense in a way as well. The way he talks about how the blood "pours" into vats and his ankle deep. He can really imagine it with that kind of phrasing. The whole way he describes the blood throughout these paragraphs lends help to the other describing words to set the scenery and i think he does a good job of that. Also, he uses a technique where he repeats the same beginning of a sentence twice, to get the reader to really see and understand that phrase is, "For eight and a half hours.." Paragraph 12 he is outside he sets the scene where the world is so innocent and nice and the looks like nothing of what is going on inside, with a hint in a small window, that sows the evil. He talks about how the air is cool and the sky is cloudless and watching the cows lazily walk in a line. He talks about the steam in the moonlight. So you can imagine a very nice night out and beautiful, but he states that a little square of light offers a little hint of the facade. That along with this phrase, " Through the little window you can see bright red carcasses on hooks, going round and round.", pulls it altogether nicely and makes the reader understand what he is portraying.
I am going to choose to write about the mini section “SHARPE KNIVES”. I thought that this was a really informational. I don’t really like to eat meat that often but I when I do I often times choose chicken over all else. I hate red meat; I think that it just tastes bad in general. One of the things that I think grossed me out the most was the idea that people in the factories were bleeding all over the place. The passage says, “Lacerations are the most common injuries suffered by meatpackers, who often stab themselves or stab someone working nearby.” Now whenever I see blood on any meat I am going to be left to wonder as to who the blood really belongs to, the animal, or the people cutting it. I also thought that it was weird that meat packing would be one of the most traumatic jobs in America. I also find it weird that they are the ones that have to take home their knives and sharpen them. Another idea that I found really skiddish about the whole situation, was the part that reads, “If a worker agrees not to report an injury, a supervisor will usually shift him or her to an easier job for a while, providing some time to heal.” Isn’t that a health code violation? I also found it repulsive when it later talks about how the women are sexual harassed at the plant, and how they subject themselves to the male desire in order to get a green card. There were a lot of eye opening points made about workers in America today. I never would have thought that all of this happened in such a place. I also thought that it is weird that the workers have love affairs all through the work plant.
ReplyDeleteI chose the 1st paragraph in the passage The Most Dangerous Job by Eric Schlosser. What this paragraph talks about is the slaughter house itself. This paragraph describes the building in in depth detail talking about how there are over five thousand head of cattle that go through this slaughter house a day. I think that is outrages number of cattle being killed per day. It says that this slaughter house is one of the largest in the country that’s why they produce so much. Basically his friend is giving him a tour of the slaughterhouse so he can see what it’s like to work there. So they give him gloves so he can see what it feels like and get comfortable with the environment he’s going to be working in. I think that this is one of American’s scariest jobs having to kill thousands of animals a day. I mean me myself I love meat but have to kill all of those poor animals it’s a real tragedy. What would us humans feel like if we were all dumped in the middle of the ocean with no arms of protection to get killed by sharks or whales. It’s the same way. Just working there must be horrible.
ReplyDeleteThe paragraph that got me to really see what was going on was paragraph six. I cant imagine taking out a cows kidneys all day long with my barehands and throwing them down a metal chute. It had some details that had me imagine things better like how high the blood was around there ankles, what they saw, what they heard. It reminded me of the senses thing we did last class. This has mostly shown me how to discribe an area in through writing. I have also learned that the slaughter house is not somewhere to apply for a job. I would most likely throw up and go home with hate in my eyes and a frown on my face. One day would be hard enough, I cant imagine doing it everyday for a job.
ReplyDeleteI also chose the opening paragraph of "The Most Dangerous Job" by Eric Schlosser. It is really detailed and descriptive of the slaugheter house. It goes on about how much cattle they slaugher per day and how they are the largest in the country and stuff like that. It's crazy to think of having to do that for a job, especially with how detailed they are about their job throughout the passage. You obviously have to be mentally prepared to do that job, as well as not have a weak stomach. That job would get really monotmous and I can't really see how people do it but thats just me.
ReplyDeletealso picked the Sharp Knives section. This section was pretty interesting and gave me a different look on people who cut meat for a living. I find it interesting that a meatpacking is the most dangerous job in the U.S that was an eye opener. This section does a good job on explaining in detail on what the meat packers actually do and all the injuries that occur in a work day. I find it surprising that they suffer so many injuries, and so many injuries that need more than first aid attention. Even if someone is hurt and they agree not to report the injury, all they do is get put in a different section of the job until they are healed and are able to go back to their normal section of the job. Its unbelievable that today they are able to slaughter up to 400 cattle an hour, when in the older days they only did about 50 cattle an hour. The real big eye opener was about the women and sex. Women would have sex with the supervisors so that they can gain a secure place in America. That is something I would definitely not expect in a slaughter house.
ReplyDeleteI choose paragraph six, because it seemed so realistic and it made me almost throw up. How the man reached inside the cow and grabbed the cow’s kidney with his bare hands. I can imagine how that would feel on my bare hands. It is very compelling because he uses the sense of the body in this paragraph. For example, the feel with the cow’s kidney, the sight of the decapitated heads, and the pop, pop, pop of animals being stunned. Also, how they have to wade through blood. Then the Wizzards peeling the meet off the decapitated heads. I can picture those moments in my head. I was eating while reading the story and it groused me out. I had to stop eating once I came to this paragraph.
ReplyDeleteIn the passage "The Most Dangerous Job" i feel repulsed by what i read. I am not up for taking apart animals and having to throw the organs down chutes. In my last college i was going for culinary. i had to take apart a chicken, flat fish and round fish. even though i was very good at this i did not enjoy this at all. After the class was over i would quickly run to my room to take a shower and get the smell off of me. this did not work i had the smell of dead fish and chicken on me for days. i can somewhat relate to what these men were doing but not to the full degree. i am pleased to read this passage and i am curious to read the next. John Munro yeahyeah
ReplyDeleteI have to say I like this story a lot, because I'm weird, sick, and twisted in that way. I have a thing for the gross and gorey and when I read this, I wasn’t grossed out at all. In fact, I was more fascinated than I was creeped out. The only thing that makes me upset is that the cows are still alive. In paragraph eight, the guy talks about the cow’s hind legs kicking and thrashing upside down on the hooks. I hate animal cruelty and I know this is for food and such, but it’s still animal cruelty to me. At least kill them in a humane way, my god. Though in paragraph seven, I liked that paragraph because of how gross and gorey it is! It’s so descriptive and in depth. Like the part where he talks about the guy ripping out the kidney and innards of the cows and how they are walking in a few inches of blood, with it pouring out of a vat. When I visualize it, it reminds me of something you’d see in one of the Saw movies. You may think I’m creepy and insane for liking gore and horror stuff, but yeah, I like it. It’s cool to me.
ReplyDeletei chose the section, "THE WORST." i chose this entire section because before this section of the story i thought being a line worker in this factory was the worst job in America. and then they go to say that being a sanitation worker for meatpacking firms is the worst job. these workers have to arrive around midnight because most of them are illegal immigrants. they have too use a high-pressure hose that shoots out hot water as well as chlorine. since the place heats up and gets foggy very fast they often accidentally shoot each other with it. these people have to pick up the mess of three to four thousand slaughtered cattle weighing about a thousand pounds each. these sanitation workers get taken badly advantage of. the death rate for the sanitation workers is extraordinarily high. i believe that this section is so compelling to me, because he describes the worst job that a person could ever have, and in addition they don't even get paid as much as the regular production employees. i just thought this was a terrible but enlightening story, and i feel so bad for all of the workers, especially the ones that work in the sanitation field.
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