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
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The second paragraph on page 656 is gory, but effective. He is describing what the workers do with different parts of the cow, and does so in extreme detail. He describes a man that reaches into each animal and removes a specific organ, while another scrapes meat from the skull of each animal. He also mentions a conveyer belt which was home to all of the tongues. Although the subject is slightly disturbing, he describes these things in such a way that the reader can really see the scene. The part that was most descriptive to me, however, was the sentence or two near the end of the paragraph, when he describes the “pop, pop, pop” of the “knocker” stunning each cow.
ReplyDeleteWhen the author described the meat packing plant, I was eerily reminded of Upton Sinclaire's 1906 book entitled 'The Jungle'. In 'The Jungle' is a sickening description on what goes on behind doors in a meat packing plant. The unsanitary conditions, the abuse of both animals and workers is just as egregious now as it was back then. I would think that there should have been some improvement from the working conditions of 1906, but when profit margin is more important than worker safey and cleanliness, these meat packing plants will continue to shock outsiders looking in. -Kyle Downing
ReplyDeleteWhen the author describes the meat packing industry, he is quick to mention that it is the most dangerous job in the United States. The average worker in a meat packing plant will statistically suffer an injury in a 4 year period. There are workers comp. benefits but when reading further into this piece it was of little reassurance because of incredibly meager amount the people who end up disfigured receive. The amount some of these people receive is nowhere near worth it. An arm: $36,000, A finger: $2,200-$4,500 depending on which one was lopped off and permanent disfiguring to the face or anywhere in public view $2,000. Obviously there will be risks in the meat packing industry but even with all the laws in place and regulations regarding people’s safety it hardly matters due to some workers not even being legal, while the remaining ones get treated with less than fair respect. Like the man in the story who injured himself stepping into a hole in the concrete, so the plant hired him to carry bags of knives up and down stairs all day, even when it caused him pain to stand. The point of this article is obviously to shed some light on the atrocious working conditions people endure working for companies that can seem nice on the surface. –Dylan Rediker
ReplyDeleteThe second paragraph on pg. 658 is the most compelling. It describes how the job can be dangerous and the hazards that go with the job. The author talks about how quickly the meat flows through the plant, and how that effected the workers negatively because they were not fully paying attention to everything that they had to do. The paragraph was compelling because of the dangers it talked about. One included how the knifes can suddenly fly out of a workers hand and ricochet off the machines. The paragraph was very descriptive about the hazards of worker there and also gave examples. That is why I think it is the most compelling paragraph in the article.
ReplyDeleteI think that the most compelling passage is the 4th paragraph on page 656. I believe that it is so compelling because it is so descriptive and gory. It is so descriptive that it's almost like your standing there with the person and in all the blood. It makes you picture all the disgusting blood and gore. It talks about the person called a sticker who cuts the throats of the cattle and talks about it in detail. It also talks about the shooter who shoots the cattle with a steel bolt and kills them. They use so much detail that you can picture the whole thing happening. It is very descriptive and gross.
ReplyDelete