Critical Analysis: Like Water For Chocolate

                  "Like Water for Chocolate" by Laura Esquirel is an emotional novel filled with dilemmas. Tita the main character whom is affected by her mothers decisions expresses herself through cooking. Although Tita is the main character, I found it interesting that her great-niece is the narrating the novel. The novel contains tradition among family, food, and how both woman and men were raised. 

                   Food is an important significance in this novel. Food can signify events throughout the book. For example, all twelve chapters have a recipe that represent something meaningful. Food can also symbolize emotions. For instance, when Tita is making Rosaura's wedding cake she starts crying and this causes "a strange intoxication-an acute attack of pain and frustration-that seized the guest" (Esquirel 39). Food can also stand for tradition. Since Tita was the youngest daughter she couldn't marry Pedro Muzquiz, but her older sister Rosaura could and did. The meaning of food or what it represents can be numerous things. 

Sorry Fugu Review

           The word for word of Sorry Fugu was an enjoyable production that had people laughing almost every minute. There was seduction, persuasion and above all food that was critiqued. At first I didn’t make a connection between the play and “Food Porn”, but once it got to the final scene I knew something was different. The actress of the playing the food critic was enjoying her food a little too much and making inappropriate noises. This reminded me of the woman on youtube; “The Food Porn Queen” and the comments she used to make about her own food. Not only was that a similarity, but the way they dressed was seductive and intimidating.

                    Overall the play was amazing and not one moment was boring. The actors knew how to play everything out and when they made a mistake they just went along with it as if were part of the production. The play is for I would say couples or a young adult audience, but it can also be for families. In my opinion the objective of the story wasn’t really known until the end of the story or you have to pay attention to small details. I would recommend this play in the future to anyone who wants to laugh for a bit.

Eating Animals Review

        Books involving vegetarianism and factory farming seem to inform the reader right away of the issue, instead of entering the topic one step at a time. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer not only gives information about certain topics, but it’s also a mixture of personal stories. There is a great experience to learn from someone like this author who has switched from being a meat eater to being a vegetarian. The author did do his research and did go to farms, but he was mostly a city boy who wouldn’t understand the hard labor put into that kind of work. His lack of experience makes me doubt what he was able accomplish when going to these farms. Many have critiqued his work, like Jay Rayner and Jennifer Resse by naming numerous flaws Foer makes throughout the book. Resse questions Foer's knowledge about meat as well as farming. She takes it as an insult that Foer is "[telling] the rest of us what meat is," she believes he is "less qualified" ( Reese 2).

        Admires of Foer such as Natalie Portman were greatly influenced by the novel. Portman turned into a vegan activist after reading Eating Animals. She believes in the well being of not only the animal of humans as Foer brings to our attention various times. There are countless examples of pathos within this book that make a reader feel either guilty or cherish the personal stories the author had with his family. One main example, was when Foer goes to a chick farm and he realizes all their beaks are cut off. I believe his main purpose is not to pursue the reader into vegetarianism, but inform them of factory farming. As he was entering this topic and starting his research he wanted to know, “ for [himself] and [his] family-what meat is” (Foer). He wanted the public to be aware of what they were consuming and how this meat would affect their health.

       If I were to choose to recommend this book to someone, I would. I enjoyed reading Foer’s personal stories and liked his writing style. It didn’t seem like he was forcing information or pursuing me to choose one side of the topic. His only purpose was letting people know about factory farming and what most of us eat is not what we think it is.

      

Factory Farming: Stay Or Go ?

  People have evolved rapidly overtime due to many advances in society. Every certain time period people want more from industries, technology or in this case food. Factory farming produces large quantity of meat products that often expire, as suggested by Jonathan Safran Foer in Eating Animals. Although factory farming is considered a negative option when it comes to meat products, they do produce jobs and stimulate the economy at a steady pace. 

        My feelings on the issue is mixed. I partly support factory farming, but I find hurting animals and giving them antibiotics that will hurt them repulsive. The economy and job opportunities in this country are doing very poorly right now, but if we get sick due to the food we are eating then we are going to be in greater debt. Some people were and still are happy with basic farming like “fifty cows”, but “farmers [have] produce more and more” to keep up with the competition ( Foer 94). Since there is more than one corporate company, like “Tyson” they want to compete and give there consumers more of that product, so they could be loyal customers. They are not only getting the animal sick, but the consumer receives the nutrients and protein the animal was fed.  

               While factory farming is wrong it does create new opportunities for people who are struggling, but consumers should be aware of what they are eating. Consumers should investigate what factory farms are doing, because it could cause an illness and they wouldn’t even know where it came from.  Even though animal cruelty is occurring everyday, meat has to be produced one way or another. Everyone is an individual, but they need to be cautious about the decisions they making. Some people can't afford organic food so it's better for everyone to decide for him or herself. 

victims vs. predators

With all the disease plaguing us are we “victims” to them or the “predators”? As in if we create the conditions that breed the diseases, ultimately are we “digging our own graves” at this rate? 

      While eating most people don’t look at the back of the food label or get to know the place where their food was processed. When eating or drinking a certain substance they don’t think about what the cow or pork on their plate was fed. Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer informs the public of two scenes the chick farm and pig slaughterhouse. Each of these places contain certain knowledge the public was unaware of. Foer wants to inform the public about what kind of harms factory farming has distributed. 

     Many diseases are becoming more common within the world. About 99 percent of all meat products in America are distributed by factory farms. A factory farm is a farm where animals are caged to closely together or there is a large amount of animals in one small area. When trying to find these factory farms, it’s much harder, because some of these so called farmers don’t want the public to know what is going on behind closed doors. When a calf is born, it’s allowed to stay by their mother side and eat grass for about six months. After it is transferred to eat grain and corn to help it grow much faster, even though they have not fully evolved yet. Factory Farmers don’t understand that when they introduce corn to the eating habits of cows they are causing the animal to get sick. Once a cow reaches fourteen months it is killed and the disease are transferred over to the human who is consuming it. 

     I do believe at times people are being ignorant when they don’t know what sickness the animal had or where their meat came from. Many hormones and antibiotics are distributed with each piece of meat that is consumed. I know their aren’t warning labels about the meat or mentioning what the product was fed, but if diseases keep on increasing around the world maybe their should be. Foer mentions in an article how “girls enter puberty earlier than they used to” due to the hormones used in some dairy products. The food they give cows progresses them much faster and as for the meat products or dairy products in which consumers receive they also progress much quicker. Family farms are always another meat option or diary option, because that family is also consuming from their and it's rare that they will be harmed with their own products. At the end I do believe some people are "digging their own grave" by not being informed about what they're eating or where their meat came from came from. 

http://fairfield.patch.com/articles/foer-provokes-thought-over-eating-animals

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/interviews/pollan.html

Compulsive Eaters

          As a female growing up in a self-absorbed society, I felt pressured into looking a certain way and this added daily stress. Unlike most females I stuck onto my principles and decided to eat regularly or whatever I felt was regular. As girls started becoming young women they also started changing and were becoming those women I said I would never become. When these females would eat they either served themselves enormous portions or not eat at all. The food they would eat was not the healthiest, but it gave them great satisfaction that they were coping with their stress. Some women couldn't handle the pressures of becoming the perfect women society wants them to be. 

         Overeating/Compulsive eating can be an easy way to escape certain pressures or stresses. This problem can be an eating disorder, which about 10% of female college students suffer from. Compulsive eaters are becoming food junkies and soon enough the become obese with sever health problems. For example, some of these women may have a muffin top or belly fat, this is a trigger to start eating compulsively every time they get a chance. After these compulsive eater have addressed their problem, they want to lose weight. Although this is admirable, it will be harder and could lead to severe consequences, such as: helplessness, guilt, disgrace, and failure. Many of these women relapse to bad habits.




             Entering puberty could be frightening, emotional, stressful, and confusing for young women. As I said before they have an image of the “Ideal” body and although some try to have that kind of body others get so mortified that they begin to eat. Being thin according to friend is being happy, successful, and accepted into society. According to Dr. Kevin Shannon, about 4.2% of females believe they don’t meet these requirements of being thin or having “ideal” and this is when they enter a deep depression. Although I have never suffered from compulsive eating, I have experienced it through a friend. She was chubby when first entering her teens and once we got into high school she decided she wanted to be thin. She was trying out for the cheerleading team as a flyer, but they had mentioned that her weight was a problem. She began to eat numerous times a day in large amounts, but never gained weight. She was very thin, to the point that she looked like a stick and the girls at school would constantly tease her. She first suffered from compulsive eating, but after it had lead her to bulimia. It was hard for her to tackle two disorders at once, but she knew what was occurring to her body and she felt as if she had made a mistake.
            Compulsive eating is addicting, but with the proper help it can be stopped. There are medical centers that not only deal with overeating, but also with other eating disorders. Have any of you ever suffered from any kind of disorder? Please ask me questions or tell me our story. :)

Unhealthy College Students

      Hello everyone my name is Nancy Ruiz. I am a nursing major and this is my sophomore year at state. Saving lives and making people feel better has always been in my life plan. I decided to become a nursing major once I became a certified EMT/First Responder my senior year of high school. I knew their was more to learn about the medical field and I was also looking forward to experience the college life. I’m a very ambitious and adventures person who likes to enjoy life and all that comes with it. 

          There is a difference from eating junk food on a daily basis and eating it once in a while. Sometimes students change their eating habits by a certain timing of the semester/quarter. For example, during finals they drink a high percentage of caffeine and eat an enormous amount of snacks that are considered junk food. Many students who would regularly eat red meat have now exchanged it for more saturated fats. Each student has his/her own eating habits, but there is a common routine when varies student have classes in the afternoon. They usually get by with chip and a soda or any fast food that is on the way to their classes. Eating habits have increased both women and mens weight and have added to their medical problems. “Freshmen 15” has been a common phrase for freshmen, because of the high risk of weight gain. With new snacks coming out as well as other fattening foods the phrase will change to “Freshmen 30.”
           Although I criticize fattening foods and students who build their nutrition on them; I often do it as well. Considering that I am a college student and have experienced both living out of campus as well as living in the dorms there are many eating habits students have. When I was a freshmen I felt a great deal of responsibility to take care of myself and feed myself what I would regularly have back at home. As time started passing by I got lazier and decided to eat the usual junk food everyone was eating. During finals all I would eat would be chips, sandwiches and a bottle of coke cola, because that was the easiest form of food to obtain at a cheap price. The care packages your parents usually bought from the school during the time of finals or midterms would consist of tea, chips, cookies and candy. These packages were supposed to be nutritious and healthy. Once I moved out of the dorms, I started eating healthier and began to exercise on a daily basis. I have help from friends with the same methods. Food can be tasteful and healthy, but when consuming too much it can lead to clogged arteries or weight gain. Especially junk food that we as college students consume everyday.


                 When consuming a certain junk food why do we go back to it on a regular basis? How long can you stay on a healthy diet plan or resist temptation of fattening foods? I hope to answer all readers questions as well as discover new heathy meal plans for college students. Also I hope to help my readers maintain a certain budget while shopping for foods.