Desolate Darkness
After class each day around noon, college students venture off campus to suppress their appetite for meat. As the nearest drive thru serves students various processed meats, fulfilling their needs, most ignore the life of the animal they have just consumed. Well known writer Michael Pollan writes a compelling article called “An Animal’s Place”, which was published in The New York Times Magazine November, 10th 2002. In this article he defends his speciesism, as he describes the mood of animal activists who demand rights for animals, whom they believe are equal to humans. His purpose is to impress upon readers the idea that eating animals, is part of our existence, but treating them cruelly should not be. In order to accomplish
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His practical wisdom in the narration of his article provides a clever way to announce his topic, by candidly admitting to eating a rib-eye steak while reading about animal liberation. This creative anecdote enables him to focus on the topic of animal rights. He uses an analogy of slavery to conclude that eating an animal while reading about animal rights do not mix well. Pollan researches several philosophers like Tom Regan and James Rachel’s to name a few, in order to gain a better understanding of his topic, the mention of experts shows his reader how knowledgeable of the subject of animal rights he is which retains his audience’s attention. The mention of Animal Liberation written by Peter Singer provokes Pollan to address the issues of slaughtering animals for meat and puts him on the defensive side. He keeps his readers attention by constantly engaging both sides of the topic. For instance, his introductory statements focus his readers to the discussion of animal rights yet as he approaches his body statements he focuses more on animal cruelty. Eventually, stating “he is not going to become a vegetarian per say, but through his current animal farming and factory experience, he will be considering how his dinner got to his plate” (Pollan para 79). This engages his audience in showing his defensive side of the discussion, and how this has emotionally affected …show more content…
Pollan focuses on the abuse of animals in factories in order to provide grounds to discuss his main idea. He sets the stage for his audience, by addressing beak docking, tail clipping, and small cages crammed air tight with chickens who can barely move. By approaching his topic after he expresses what he has seen in the factories better enables him to argue more convincingly, that animals should freely and naturally be allowed express themselves. With his use of inductive reasoning he puts a face on the animals, humans are consuming through his article. He brings his audience along as he tours a natural farm the kind that has existed for hundreds of years before large franchise took over the food-producing industry. This farm is set up to create the kind of atmosphere, animals thrive in, and nurturing each animal as one would a newborn child. This gives the audience an understanding of how he can morally continue to eat meat. With his knowledge he provides an alternative concern for his audience to find out where their meat comes from. With his use of logic, he justifies getting meat from natural farms where the animals life can be lived to the fullest before providing nourishment for humans. The structure of his argument fulfills the reader’s appetite for knowledge of animal rights and cruelty leaving them
Michael Pollan’s purpose of writing Omnivore’s Dilemma came about when he realizes that society is unbelievably unhealthy due to the abundance of food. The two conflicting logics that Pollan introduces are the logic of nature and the logic of industry; these two logics are reflected through various ways of raising livestock animals. The logic of nature consists of raising livestock animals in a pastoral environment where animals interact with one another and avoid the use of artificial chemicals; whereas, the logic of industry settles on raising livestock animals unnaturally. Growing cattle through the use of corn has allowed meat to be produced in large quantities and in a short time as described in the chapter “Feedlot: Making Meat”
Regan, Tom. “The Case for Animal Rights.” In Defense of Animals. Ed. Peter Singer. New York:
Norcross, Alastair. “Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases.” Philosophical Perspectives 18, (2004): 229-245.
“An Animals’ Place” by Michael Pollan is an article that describes our relationship and interactions with animals. The article suggests that the world should switch to a vegetarian diet, due to the mistreatment of animals. The essay includes references from animal rights activists and philosophers. These references are usually logical statement that compare humans and non-human animals in multiple levels, such as intellectual and social.
Alastair Norcross introduces a very controversial case. He compares the actions of Fred as being morally equal to factory farming. Norcross presents the Marginal case and the Analogy argument. There are many objections to his beliefs such as; the suffering of the puppies is intended as a means to Fred’s pleasure, whereas the suffering of factory raised animals is merely foreseen as a side effect of a system that is a means to the gustatory pleasure of millions. Also, the individual consumers lack the power to put an end to factory farming. And lastly, human beings have a greater moral status than nonhumans. (Norcross, 285) I disagree with Norcross’s statement saying that Fred’s behavior and that of people who consume factory-farmed meat is morally equivalent.
As an advocate of animal rights, Tom Regan presents us with the idea that animals deserve to be treated with equal respect to humans. Commonly, we view our household pets and select exotic animals in different regard as oppose to the animals we perceive as merely a food source which, is a notion that animal rights activists
Manipulation of language can be a weapon of mind control and abuse of power. The story Animal Farm by George Orwell is all about manipulation, and the major way manipulation is used in this novel is by the use of words. The character in this book named Squealer employs ethos, pathos, and logos in order to manipulate the other animals and maintain control.
Walters, Kerry S, and Lisa Portmess. Ethical Vegetarianism: From Pythagoras to Peter Singer. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999. Print.
In the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, the author talks about, not only vegetarianism, but reveals to us what actually occurs in the factory farming system. The issue circulating in this book is whether to eat meat or not to eat meat. Foer, however, never tries to convert his reader to become vegetarians but rather to inform them with information so they can respond with better judgment. Eating meat has been a thing that majority of us engage in without question. Which is why among other reasons Foer feels compelled to share his findings about where our meat come from. Throughout the book, he gives vivid accounts of the dreadful conditions factory farmed animals endure on a daily basis. For this reason Foer urges us to take a stand against factory farming, and if we must eat meat then we must adapt humane agricultural methods for meat production.
Michael Pollan presents many convincing arguments that strengthen his position on whether slaughtering animals is ethical or not. He believes that every living being on this planet deserves an equal amount of respect regardless of it being an animal or human, after all humans are also animals. “An Animal’s place” by Michael Pollan is an opinionated piece that states his beliefs on whether animals should be slaughtered and killed to be someone’s meal or not. In his article, Pollan does not just state his opinions as a writer but also analyzes them from a reader’s point of view, thus answering any questions that the reader might raise. Although Pollan does consider killing and slaughtering of animals unethical, using environmental and ethical
“The pen is mightier than the sword.” This is a popular saying that explains that, sometimes, in order to persuade or convince people, one should not use force but words. In Animal Farm, by George Orwell, animals overthrow the human leader and start a new life, but some animals want to become the new leaders. To make the other animals obey the pigs, they first have to persuade the farm’s population. Squealer is the best pig for this job because he effectively convinces the animals to follow Napoleon by using different rhetorical devices and methods of persuasion.
Factory farms have portrayed cruelty to animals in a way that is horrific; unfortunately the public often does not see what really goes on inside these “farms.” In order to understand the conditions present in these factory farms, it must first be examined what the animals in these factory farms are eating. Some of the ingredients commonly used in feeding the animals inside factory farms include the following: animal byproducts, plastic, drugs and chemicals, excessive grains, and meat from members of the same species. (Adams, 2007) These animals are tortured and used for purely slaughter in order to be fed on. Typically large numbers of animals are kept in closed and tight confinements, having only little room to move around, if even that. These confinements can lead to suffocation and death and is not rare. Evidence fr...
Vegetarians are uncomfortable with how humans treat animals. Animals are cruelly butchered to meet the high demand and taste for meat in the market. Furthermore, meat-consumers argue that meat based foods are cheaper than plant based foods. According to Christians, man was given the power to dominate over all creatures in the world. Therefore, man has the right to use animals for food (Singer and Mason, 2007). However, it is unjustified for man to treat animals as he wishes because he has the power to rule over animals. This owes to the reality that it is unclear whether man has the right to slaughter animals (haphazardly), but it is clear that humans have a duty to take care of animals. In objection, killing animals is equal to killing fellow humans because both humans and animals have a right to life. Instead of brutally slaying animals, people should consume their products, which...
"Vegetarianism." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
Let me begin with the words by George Bernard Shaw: ‘Animals are my friends and I don’t eat my friends’. This indicates the ethic aspect of meat consumption. In fact, people often don’t realize how animals are treated, but they can see commercial spots in their TV showing smiling pigs, cows or chickens, happy and ready to be eaten. My impression is that there can’t be anything more cruel and senseless. It is no secret that animals suffer ...