The description of action that readers can see in this piece is almost always about cooking. Whether the mother or the son is cooking, readers can follow along and feel as if they are in the kitchen too. The descriptions of how the author chops or mixes the ingredients in the food are the action of this story.

The speech aspect of this story can be seen when the author has convesations with his mother. One particular example is when the mother asked the author to help her and call the bank because her English wasn’t great. The author speaks to his mother in a cruel way and tells her to practice, which really upsets her. The speech really helps define their relationship.

Thought can be seen throughout this entire essay. When the author looks back on his life, readers can see all his thoughts about what was going on then and what it means to him now. Many times in this story, the author looks back on his actions or lack of action with regret.

The physical description of this story is seen when the author describes his mother in the first paragraph. The details aren’t exact, but after reading that paragraph, readers understand that the mother is sick with cancer and is in a very fragile state. She has trouble breathing and it is almost as if the family is expecting her to pass away at anytime.

Tracks and Ties

There is alot of action that takes place in this story. Much of the story follows the boys through their days as teenagers, when they were in and out of trouble. A good description of action is when the boys jump on to the truck and have to hang on for dear life because the truck driver is accelerating to try and throw the boys off.

There really is not a whole lot of speech in this essay. The only time readers really see anyone speaking is when the boy who later ended up being murdered, said “Shit man, the screem’s broken”. This passage really shows how the author thinks the way the boy is talking is weird, even for the kind of boys they are. It starts to show seperation of class.

The thought catergory in this essay is pretty small. The biggest example I can think of is when the author thinks about his friend being murdered by his wife. He thinks about how he grew up with his friend and thought he knew him pretty well, but when he looks back he never really did. It shows how the author didn’t think his friend would turn out to be a wife beater.

The physical description in this essay can be seen when the author describes the clothes his friend was wearing, how everyone’s hair looked, and how they needed to shave. It can also been seen when the author describes his friend’s mother. He says she was wearing sweat pants and a sweater, dyed hair, and a coldsore on her lip.

The concrete sensory details provided in this memoir were really helpful to readers. The author described himself and his family in close detail so it allowed the readers to feel a connection with the author. The reader also closely described his neighbors and what they were like and where they lived so readers could picture the neighborhood.

The abstract reasoning that was presented in this essay was less than the sensory detail. When the author talked about his family and what they were like he used abstract reasoning to explain that even though they were poor they were still good, clean people. I think that someone looking back would say that, but as a child I’m not sure the author would understand that. It is easy to see when the author was using abstract reasoning because when it occurred the author was looking back on a memory and he tried to explain it instead of just telling details.

Angela is from Perryton, Texas. She lives on a farm where he father works with cattle for a retired couple. Both her parents immigrated here from Mexico when she and her brother were young kids.

Angela’s wants to win because she wants to be the best speller. This is ironic because her parents do not speak English very well. She is very competitive and her parents were very proud when she won the regional spelling bee.

Angela’s family doesn’t seem very wealthy and they are from a small community. This could be to her disadvantage because she may not have the best resources to practice and become the best speller.

I picked Angela because of the irony of her situation. Her parents can hardly speak english, but yet she is representing Texas in the national spelling bee.

Nupur:

Nupur is from Tampa, Florida. She loves to play the violin and loves words. Her parents are from India and push her to be the best academically, as well as in other areas.

Her reason for winning is she wants to be the best and prove she is the best because she knows you have to work hard to get somewhere in life. She said that in India people only get one chance and she wants to work really hard to win that once in a lifetime opportunity.

I really don’t think there is anything holding Nupur back from winning. She is wealthy so she can afford resources to practice and her parents support her one hundred percent. She has a very driven mentality passed to her from her parents and I think this helps her.

I chose Nupur because she seems to actually love what she does. In the film she said she loves words and has always been attracted to really big words. The other kids didn’t seem as passionate as she did.

Because Nupur loves what she does, I feel like she could win the national spelling bee over the other kids. She has the resources, experience, and passion to be good enough to win.

Chapter 13 is all about the sales of Polyface products. In this chapter, readers can see how Americans have made food less of a priority and many are just interested in buying what is cheap. It then goes on to show how Polyface products are much better than any other products that are found at the grocery store. It really highlights the pastoral view of farming and food.

Chapter 14 shows a more personal look at Pollan. It shows him returning to his own element. He brings chicken and other fresh food from Polyface farm back with him from his journey. He then prepares a meal for his friends. This chapter really describes the taste of the food and how much more personal the meal is to Michael Pollan because he prepared the meal himself.

One thing that really sparked my interest when I was reading was the face that Polyface food is so much more expensive than other food. How are poor people and people who live in big cities supposed to be able to pay for or even gain access to fresh food grown on the small farms?

Who else is glad to be finished with this book?

Chapter 11 shows the complexity of Joel Salatin’s farm. All the animals have a role to play and if one little detail gets changed, the whole farm is thrown off course. It is a never ending cycle. The chickens are the sanitation crew of the farm, the cows graze on the grass and help feed the chickens and pigs, the pigs clean up after the cow, and all this goes on and on.  The system that Joel has created is complex, but most of the work gets done by the animals because they do clean up after eachother and help make the land more fertile.

I think it is really amazing how Joel and his family came up with this entire system. I wonder how much more expensive his products are compared to other organic products and just plain old industry products?

Chapter 9 is longer and much more in depth about the workings of the farm. Joel calls the grass a “salad bar” because it offers so many nutritive options to the animals. The cycling of the animals in the pastures is also explained. He uses an S shaped curve to explain one the grass is eaten, it must rest for just the right amount of time before it is eaten again to stay healthy. It becomes too hard if you let it go too long and undernourished if it is eaten too often. Joel then talks about his family history and about how his father started the farm. We also gain great insight into many clever designs that Joel uses to keep his farm in perfect working order.

What I think of when I remember these two chapter is that looking at the little things is important. These chapters talk about grass with such detail. I never would have thought that grass was so important to anyone. It makes me stop and think about other things that I would usually miss anyother time.

I wonder if America will start to move back towards farming like this or if big business has harmed farming too greatly to go back?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/FDA-Plans-to-Break-Food-Sa-by-R-CALF-USA-090417-801.html

This article is about the history of one of the laws the FDA put into affect because BSE(mad cow disease) was affecting America’s meat supply. This article really relates to “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” because in the book, readers really gain an understanding of how corn affects cows and the meat they produce.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Goodbye-farmers-markets-C-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090303-287.html

This article is about the food safey laws that were passed by Congress. It is an opinion, similar to the one in “The Ominivore’s Dilemma”, that shows the negative effects that big companies have on farmers and their products. It shows have the laws that were actually passed were not in the best interest of consumers, but of the big companies such as Cargil. Like in the book, this article shows how local farmers markets are good for local communities.

Peer-Reviewed:

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=11&sid=7045fda1-b489-4029-8e39-8d7421a54daf%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=34762888

This article goes into great depth over the different Native American tribes and their different customs dealing with corn. It really shows how sacred corn was to them and big of a role it played in their lives. It then goes into details about corn genes and how the corn mutated to get where it is today.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=2&hid=11&sid=a130ede7-8abb-4358-86af-ae00db4b26f9%40sessionmgr10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&jid=ARC

This article is about the history of maize pollen. It talks about how researchers found grains of maize pollen that were thousands of years old. The old grains that were found help researches track the origins of corn farming and the time period to which they matched.

Variable:

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/88/6/1716S

This article is about high fructose corn syrup. It tells the history of high fructose corn syrup and then goes into great details about the differences between high fructose corn syrup and sugar. It then tries to show that the history of obesity does not relate with high fructose corn syrup.

http://health.learninginfo.org/food-pyramid.htm

This final article is on the history of the food guide pyramid. It then goes on to talk about how the pyramid hasn’t kept up with scientific research. It then goes on to give alternative pyramids for people who have diabetes or other conditions.