A Study Guide for Eric Schlosser's "Chew on This"

By Gale and Cengage

A Study Guide for Eric Schlosser's "Chew on This" excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Literary Newsmakers for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Literary Newsmakers for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: Sep 20, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535820677

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information.

Chew on This

Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson

2006

Introduction

In the fashion of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle—which revealed the dangerous, unhealthy, and unfair world of the meatpacking industry at the turn of the twentieth century—Chew on This provides a gritty perspective on the fast food industry of today. Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson use statistics, personal interviews, and published research to prove America's dependence on the fast food industry, as well as the impact the industry has on America's economic, social, and physical well-being. Though the subject matter of the book resonates with Schlosser's previous book, Fast Food Nation, Chew on This is written for young adults.

Chew on This begins by showing the inspiration and progression of the fast food industry, from Charlie Nagreen selling meatball sandwiches at a Wisconsin county fair in 1885 to the McDonald brothers' Speedee Service System that revolutionized the concept of the drive-in restaurant. This explanation of how the fast food industry grew from small family-owned businesses to large, automated, and uniform franchises allows the reader to see the systematic decline in food quality and subsequent increase in consumer health concerns. The book also demonstrates the effect fast food has on communities, both worldwide and local, and gives the reader an inside look at what happens as meat moves from the slaughterhouse to the suburbs.

Schlosser and Wilson use a lively, engaging tone to discuss difficult topics like tooth decay caused by dependence on soda pop and the torturous process of farming chickens for the fast food industry suppliers. In addition, Schlosser and Wilson bring the ideas in their book to life by introducing young readers to eye-opening industry secrets; for example, tiny bugs are ground up to make coloring additives for foods like yogurt, milkshakes, and juice drinks. The book concludes by noting the social changes that have come about since the book's printing and urges readers to become more aware of what and where they are eating.

Author Biography

Eric Schlosser was born August 17, 1959, in New York City. He received his bachelor's degree in American History from Princeton University, where he experimented with different forms of writing while editing the university's humor magazine, writing plays, and studying journalism. Following his years at Princeton, Schlosser intended to pursue an academic career and went to Oriel College in Oxford but decided to change direction after three years. He went to Vermont and honed his writing, which, in 1992, led him to a job in New York as a script reader and story editor for Tribeca Productions. In New York, Schlosser began a successful career in nonfiction.

The Bomb Squad, his first article for Atlantic Monthly, was published following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and detailed the activities of the New York City bomb squad. Next, Schlosser wrote a two-part series, Reefer Madness and Marijuana and the Law, for Atlantic Monthly and, in doing so, caught the eye of an editor at Rolling Stone magazine, who offered him an assignment exposing the fast food industry. The three-part series, first printed in the magazine, was published as a book entitled Fast Food Nation three years later. His article Reefer Madness was the basis for his second book, published in 2003 under the title Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market. This book focuses on the impact of certain underground trades on the American economy, namely pornography and drugs. Published in 2006, Chew on This echoes Fast Food Nation in its search for the truth about fast food and the industry that produces it, but is geared toward a young adult readership.

Schlosser has built his writing career on revealing the hidden secrets of both consumerism and capitalism. Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness both topped the New York Times bestseller list. Fast Food Nation also earned spots on the USA Today, Business Week, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. Schlosser's investigative reporting has earned him a National