PROJECT #2 FALL 2019
Meal Analysis Essay (Paper 2)
Now that you’ve composed your Favorite Meal essays, take a look at what the class has offered up in the Food for Thought Archive.
For the Meal Analysis Essay assignment (PAPER #2), consider Michael Pollan’s essay “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” concerning the advances humanity has made cooking food and developing ways of being. Here Pollan discusses the good, the bad, and the ugly (Gordon Ramsay?) aspects of our relationship with food and its impact on culture over time, focusing on Julia Child’s revolutionary cooking show in the 1960’s.
Of note, in section 6, Pollan includes French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin’s claim that cooking made us who we are. In essence, by learning to harness the power of fire to cook food, it had “done the most to advance the cause of civilization.”
After “grazing” through the essays of your peers, is there pattern that you notice emerging in any of these student favorite meal narratives? And what might that pattern say about our values? Focus here on the Pollan’s concerns and interests on food and culture and imagine how his argument fits (or doesn’t quite fit) with examples from the food narratives of our class and prior classes.
Select three student Favorite Meal essays total—two from our class and one from a prior class—and analyze what they tell us (implicitly or explicitly) about the values, concepts of civilization, culture, and the relationships they show. What are these Favorite Meal essays a reflection of, and what are your peers’ relationships with these meals? Is there anything significant about the work in the FOOD FOR THOUGHT archive from a prior class when compared to our class? Treat your peers’/classmates’ work as texts that you draw from to integrate as evidence into your paper and put them into a conversation with Pollan’s essay. You can’t really forge the conversation unless you explore the archive and class offerings.
Craft a thesis that helps unite these four texts. Work to connect important moments in Pollan, cite specific compelling passages from the essays you select, back up your claims, and work to massage those ideas into your discussion. Remember: Don’t just gesture, SHOW through a mixture of direct quotation and concrete paraphrasing.
Think: “Pollan shows us that….__________by revealing_______.”
Or “Jane Q. Student offers a more moving portrait of…_____________ by______.”
Your analysis on why these passages are compelling will help to advance your ideas.
Some questions to consider:
- What is civilization, really, at least according to you? And how does that seem to fit with your sources?
- Do you agree with Pollan’s assertion that cooking made us who we are?
- And how does that fit with the depiction of reality tv cooking that Pollan represents in his essay?
- Is food sport? Has it always been? Should tradition matter?
- Do you agree with Pollan about the benefits cooking has made? Where do you see some of these benefits playing out in the work of your peers? Do your peers’ essays always confirm a positive experience regarding food? Do they counter/extend/complicate any of this?
- If food is a mirror through which we can better understand ourselves and culture, what kind of reflections of their lives have your peers created?
These are “starter questions” to get you thinking about the bigger concepts of this paper regarding food, American and other cultures, patterns, civilization, commercialism, media, and of course, the value of food. These aren’t all meant to be answered in this paper.
Pro tip: Try selecting someone in this class with whom you are unfamiliar. If you’re familiar with everyone, pick the least familiar.
Hint: This isn’t merely a compare/contrast assignment. Think: How does looking at Pollan help us see something important/meaningful/significant and possibly repeated in the work of your peers? How can you connect the work of your peers to Pollan, even if it’s all very different in experience or emotional content?
Fine print: This paper should be a 1250-1500 words plus a “Works Cited” page. Be sure to give credit to your peers’ work. Papers should adhere to MLA conventions. Divide your discussion evenly with each source.
Resources:
Me
KEY DATES PAPER 2, FALL 2019:
10/14: Come to class with 500 words
10/14: Writing lab—work up to 800 words in class, exchange drafts
10/16: Workshop
10/30: Final draft, send in class
