Jonathan safran foer Essays

Jonathan safran foer Essays Jonathan safran foer Essay Jonathan safran foer Essay Throughout this essay I will tell how he uses these strategies and how they work for him. Fore Uses imagery throughout his pieces to help you get a better understanding of what hes saying and to help you picture what is being said. His first use of imagery is used in the book Eating Animals when it says At first the situation doesnt look too bad. Its crowded, but they seem happy enough. (And human babies are kept in crowded indoor nurseries, right? ) And theyre cute. The exhilaration of seeing what came to see, and confronting all of these baby animals, has me feeling pretty good (Fore 89). The reason he used this is to help readers see that the chickens were crowded in a room but its no different than where babies are held which is in a crowded nursery. Also in Eating Animals he presents another example of imagery when he says Step your mind into a crowded elevator, an elevator so crowded you cannot turn around without bumping into (and aggravating) your neighbor. The elevator is so crowded you are often held aloft. This is kind of a blessing, as the slanted floor is made of wire, which cuts into your feet (Fore 47). This example really works for Fore because he tells you to picture it and then gives you a situation where you would be able to picture it perfectly and physically imagine yourself there. This strategy helps the reader more fully understand what the author is trying to describe. It makes the reader actually imagine what it is like and care more about the situation. Anyone can hear that something is terrible, but no one really cares until they experience it for themselves. Fore also represents imagery in an article he writes entitled Speechless which s about how his sons vocabulary isnt advanced enough to fully understand what he is experiencing or is being told. In the article he says There was a period, about a year ago, when every few nights my wife and I would be awakened by the sound of little steps in the darkness. Then our sons quick breathing in our room, and finally his trembling voice from the foot of the bed: I had a nightmare (Fore, Speechless). This form of imagery is to show the reader how distinct the sound was so you can actually picture the child walking through the hallway into the room. This works for Fore by being able to share a story that many adults can relate to because many children have nightmares, so he really connects with his readers using this imagery. Imagery is used very well in Foyers work but he does a good job with adding many metaphors. Foyers use of metaphors is spread throughout his writing and made reading them much more enjoyable. In the book Eating Animals he uses an example which says We could hear the bullet wed dodged whistle past me (Fore 52). This metaphor is used to emphasize the importance and severity of the situation. It gives the reader a better feeling of just how much the situation meant to the author. By using the term bullet, Fore makes his story that much more dramatic and emotional. This particular metaphor works in Foyers book because he is telling how serious the situation could have been, but by dodging the bullet he is saying things are good but could have been far worse. Also in an article by Fore titled How To Not Be Alone In The 21st Century, Fore reminds us to pay attention to people in our interconnected world. Too often, we forget to do this. He uses an example adapter when he says l worry that the closer the world gets to our fingertips, the further it gets from our hearts (Fore, How To Not Be Alone In The 21st Century). This metaphor is used to show how technology is evolving everyday and people are too focused with it and not paying attention to the things that are happening right in front of them. This was very important for Fore to put in his article because it applies to everyone, its not just targeted to one specific demographic, and it targets people around the world because technology is everywhere and is improving. In another article by Fore Eating Animals Makes Us Sick, he says your friend didnt catch a bug as much as eat a bug (Fore, Eating Animals Makes us Sick). This metaphor is one that is expressed widely when people talk about getting sick. This one works in Poems perspective because he figures that is a figure of speech everyone knows well enough to figure out and make sense of what hes saying. His metaphors are all in relation to make the reader become more comfortable with his writings and makes them want to read more and more by offering them great metaphors that will simplify what he is saying. The last metaphor moms from Eating Animals also, it says But herds the elephant in the room: why eat animals at all? (Fore, 210). Fore uses this rhetorical strategy to simply point out the obvious. He shows that many people are afraid to ask themselves this question so in this part he puts it all out on the table. He wants to make people think about the uncomfortable questions in the back of their minds and the questions that no one has ever thought to bring up. His bluntness makes the reader see animals as animals, and makes the reader take into consideration whether eating animals is the right thing to do ND if consuming the chemicals within them is or is not worth the taste. Metaphors are something that worked for Fore but his appeal to pathos is something that he frequently repeats. Pathos is one Of Foyers main go-to signature strategies. No matter what he writes he somehow finds a way to appeal to the readers emotions by what he is saying. The first use of pathos in the book says One time I just took my knife-its sharp enough- and I sliced off the end of a hogs nose, just like a piece of bologna. The hog went crazy for a few seconds. Then just sat there looking kind of stupid. So I took a handful of salt brine and ground it into its nose (Fore 253). This really appeals to the readers emotions because that is something you dont imagine happening to animals, its gruesome and brutal to do something like that and unnecessary. This type of pathos really gets to the reader and really works for Fore because by telling about the things that happen to animals on farms, really spreads awareness of not only how they are made but how they are treated behind the radar. Because pathos is such a good rhetorical device for him, he puts a lot into his book. Another example being, Water in these tanks has been aptly named fecal soup for all the filth and bacteria floating around. By immersing clean, healthy birds in the same tank with dirty ones, youre practically assuring cross-contamination (Fore 135). This is also a great way to appeal to the readers emotions because in those words you see how dirty the food that is being processed is and really think to themselves, is this what I Want to be putting in my body, is this something that will make me sick and when you get your reader to ask themselves those questions then Ive effectively appealed to their emotions. In his article Speechless, Fore uses the unthinkable and most emotional topic to appeal to the readers emotions. He brings up 9/11. No matter what story, the thought of 9/1 1 automatically causes emotion from people because that was a sad day in American history, lives were changed, and nothing was ever the same. In the article he tells how if his child were to ask about it he would simply just say Because they were trying to kill the people in the buildings, and scare everyone else; because they were angry about certain things America had one; because the fires weakened the steel that held the towers up (Fore, Speechless). This quote works so well for Fore and he used it because he knew that he would get an emotional response out of whoever was reading it. Overall Jonathan Saffron Fore, along with many other authors, likes to have certain rhetorical strategies that they use no matter what they are writing. In this case Fore uses a lot of imagery, metaphors, and appeals to the readers emotions by using pathos in a number of his writings. These trademarked strategies are what makes his writing so unique and his own.