Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals is a book about persuasion. Foer seeks to convince his readers to take any step in reducing what he believes is the injustice of harming animals. To achieve this, Foer employs many persuasion techniques and often changes his approach when he targets specific groups. His strategies include establishing himself as an ethical authority and appealing to his readers’ emotions, morals, and reason.
In order to convince readers to accept his conclusions, Foer first attempts to establish himself as a credible and reliable source. To achieve this, Foer uses a dictionary-style method of defining slippery or ambiguous terms. He states in his book that, “Language is never fully trustworthy, but when it comes to eating
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One such appeal is an appeal in which Foer urges readers, either directly or indirectly, to imagine what it would be like to be an animal. Foer defines this concept as “anthropomorphism” (the urge to project human experience onto the other animals) (46). Foer either directly asks readers to picture themselves in the place of an animal, or he relies on anthropomorphism in a more subtle way. For instance, Foer states that, “Fish build complex nests, form monogamous relationships, hunt cooperatively with other species, and use tools” (65). Foer attempts to show that animals and humans are more alike than conventional wisdom suggests. By blurring the line between animals and humans, Foer attempts to persuade readers to treat animals like …show more content…
Foer recognizes this when he specifically addresses environmentalists, so he adapts his approach from emotional appeals to logical appeals. Foer argues, and supports with evidence from reputable sources, that the fruition of animal rights activists’ goals naturally benefits the environment. For instance, Foer presents statistics that show that farmed animals are significant contributors to climate change (58-59). By utilizing statistics from authoritative sources, Foer attempts to draw the logical conclusion that those who are concerned about the environment must be concerned about animal rights. Therefore, environmentalists who accept his logical construction may be more persuaded to accept his conclusions.
Foer’s ultimate goal in Eating Animals is to convince as many people as possible to agree with his views. As such, Foer uses many kinds of persuasion techniques to appeal to the widest range of people as possible. To lend himself more credibility, Foer attempts to establish himself as an ethical authority with his readers. Foer then tries to persuade readers by appealing to their emotions, morals, and reason. By utilizing a variety of persuasion techniques and dynamically adapting his techniques to fit his intended audience, Foer is likely to persuade many of his readers with his
Finally, he presents another story from his grandmother to persuade his audience to understand his thought process. Although Foer presents interesting stories, he has a distracting tone of confusion throughout the article, he uses mainly emotional appeal to make his argument, his statistical evidence is incomplete, and he commits the logical fallacy moral equivalence. Therefore, his argument is rendered unpersuasive. First of
Introduction In this article “Against Meat” (2009) Jonathan Safran Foer explains his experience from a young age until the present struggling whether being a vegetarian or an omnivore because he doesn’t want to hurt animals at the same time he can’t resist food because it tasted good. Jonathan Safran Foer is an American novelist (born February 21, 1977) He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in philosophy, in his freshman year he took a writing class from the novelist Joyce Carol.
The author's use of a compare/contrast structure and the appeal to ethos to support her claim was effective. However, her use of the hasty generalization and “Red Herring” fallacies caused the audience to doubt her claim, that meat from traditional farms was better for the environment, had sufficient evidence to
This short story explains and questions how people find eating animals morally acceptable. Steiner 's short story explains that whenever people think these animals are being treated respectfully they are being ignorant to the fact of how these animals are truly treated; Steiner brings up the fact of how an animals typical horrid life is and how it transitions from its horrid life to being killed by a butcher in a matter of seconds. Moreover, Steiner also adheres to the topic of how unacceptable, it is to kill these animals just for human consumption. Steiner 's purpose in writing this short story is to display to us the fact that eating any animal is not only wrong, but it is just downright unacceptable as it is mass murder of these innocent animals. Finally, Steiner tries to define at his best, what a strict vegan truly
In the essay Consider the Lobster David Foster Wallace considers the socio-cultural, the agribusiness, and the eating practices built around animals taking the case of the lobster. Wallace himself confused between the morality and aesthetics of consuming animals admits that “the whole animal-cruelty-and-eating issue is not just complex, it is also uncomfortable” (62). Writing about the Maine Lobster Festival (MLF), he implores the reader to look beyond the “sun, fun, and fine food” with established research justifying the sentience of all beings (Foster, 50). The essay is descriptive in its style substantiated with discoveries made about lobster neurology. Yet Wallace has also established his arguments from a moral and ethical perspective as
Then, Goodall uses the phrase "There are many ethical issues, which we seldom face up to, whenever an animal is killed" (paragraph 11,first sentence) he utilizes these words to empower and motivate the readers to think more in depth about the issue and also to make some changes. While Goodall states her point of view she builds a strong relationship with the audience. This text is extremely effective because it gives the audience and future readers a backdrop of trophy hunting. Jane Goodall does an excellent job in crafting her opinion to the readers, for she shows her sympathy and understanding of the issue through the use of
In her work “What’s Wrong with Animal Rights,” Vicki Hearne challenges common beliefs of animal rights, arguing that animal rights groups do very little to actually benefit animals. She argues that natural selection should be allowed to take place for wild animals, and animals such as cats and dogs should not be seen as property. To persuade the audience to support her position, she uses ethos, pathos, and logos. Her credibility as a trainer makes the logic behind her views reliable, her logic reinforces the examples she uses, and she appeals to emotion using her relationship with her Airedale, Drummer, to support everything her argument is saying. Through these strategies, Vicki Hearne effectively counters the current, popular views of the
In the article, “Is It Possible to be a Conscientious Meat Eater”, the authors argue that processed meat can greatly affect the many things in our everyday life. Sunaura and Alexander’s argument is significantly unreliable because of the certain professions both authors yield. As stated in the article “Sunaura is an artist, writer, and activist in Oakland.” “Alexander’s profession is studying philosophy, and ethics in Athens, Georgia.” This shows that neither of them are qualified to argue in the subject of conscientious meat eaters.
The Locavore Myth Analysis Developing and expressing an argument effectively takes skill. Successfully developing and expressing an argument takes
In Jonathan Foer’s argumentative essay “Let Them Eat Dog”, he makes a very convincing argument for the consumption of dog, a surprising topic to argue for. However, when one reads through his excerpt, it’s quite difficult to escape the sound logic he utilizes throughout the piece. Ranging from commentary on the taste of dog meat to points about the ecological impact it would have if the U.S. started eating dog, Foer is persuasive and reasonable. So reasonable, in fact, that it begs the reader to question exactly why he would put so much effort into arguing for eating dog, something that most people won’t change their minds on no matter how logical the argument is. Foer even admits at the end of his essay that despite his best efforts, people
An element of propaganda the animals used to influence others is the scare tactics technique. The scare tactic technique is when one is trying to warn the audience that some disaster will overtake them if they do not do what is suggested. To illustrate this method, the author writes “It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. You know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty?
As diets and health become more and more of a public concern in America. Two authors weigh in on their opinions on how the American public should handle the problem of obesity as well as their solutions to the overwhelming issue. In one article, “Against Meat,” published on the New York Times website in 2009, points out that the solution to obesity should be vegetarianism. Johnathan Foer who is a vegetarian, claims that his diet and way of living is his the way of improving health in the American public. Foer’s article provides a sense of humor as well as personal stories to attempt to persuade his audience for the ethical treatment of animals along with his personal solution for his own health and the health of his family.
“Consider the Lobster,” by David Foster Wallace, published in the August 2004 edition of Gourmet Magazine explores the morality of the consumption of lobsters through the analysis of the Maine Lobster Festival. Foster Wallace guides his readers through his exploration of the festival and general circumstances of lobster eating before evoking a sense of obligation to the creature’s well being. His gentle slide into the ‘big picture’ through his causal argument wades readers into the depths of his thoughts through the power of storytelling until they are left with no choice but to engage with their own perception of the act with skepticism. Ultimately, the passage commands readers to reexamine their own consumption of lobsters regardless of
Contrary to popular belief, a society can be successful without being flawless. To prosper, one simply needs modest inhabitants. While utopias consist of humble citizens, they are also places with faultless economies, places of equality and perfection. On the contrary, dystopias are places of ideality where everything goes wrong. The government is typically a totalitarianism one where a self-absorbed leader degrades most inhabitants, like in Animal Farm.
The consumption of animal meat is highly accepted in today’s society, however, the methods, in which the animals are killed are sometimes questioned for their cruelty. David Wallace, in considering the Lobster, takes the readers to the Maine Lobster Festival, where the consumption of lobsters is exploited, and the festival's attendees celebrate these acts. However, the essay goes furthermore than narrating the lobster’s festival, because through sensory details, and different techniques, he makes the readers question society’s morality. By stressing the cruelty it takes boiling lobsters alive, Wallace is capable of creating a sense of awareness in society decisions that demonstrate their corrupted morality, and how it affects directly others (like lobsters)