Post by Mr. Wells on Nov 27, 2007 12:04:06 GMT -5
Thus far -- as has probably been the case for most of your discussions in most of your classes since most of you were in elementary school -- we have focused on the human side of things. The plight of the Joads and the other "Okies;" the atrocious working conditions of America's present-day minimum wage-earning workforce. We haven't discussed what Americans have done to the land.
Let me pause you again, before you think I expect to mold you all into becoming tree-hugging, tofu-eating, burlap-sack-wearing environmentalists. I'm not suggesting in some way that we ought to care more about the earth than each other. What I question is our inability to realize that we are in some way connected to the land. It seems as though, in our unremittent quests to know more through science, we forgot that we are "more than [our] chemistry, that the land is "more than its analysis."
Based on your reading in the Grapes of Wrath (up to Chapter 20) and chapters 5 and 6 in Fast Food Nation, what is your reaction to the movement away from a more intimate relationship between land and farmer, people and food? Who is to blame for this shift? It's easy to place sole blame on the big banks and businesses. Are they the only entities at fault?
As always, support your facts with specific details and evidence from both texts to support your claims. I expect a thorough, thoughtful, insightful response. Feel free to include outside sources to inform your argument. You all have a wealth of knowledge that exists outside the realm of this class.
Use it.
This assignment is due Sunday, December 9th, and peer responses are due by Monday, December 10th.
Let me pause you again, before you think I expect to mold you all into becoming tree-hugging, tofu-eating, burlap-sack-wearing environmentalists. I'm not suggesting in some way that we ought to care more about the earth than each other. What I question is our inability to realize that we are in some way connected to the land. It seems as though, in our unremittent quests to know more through science, we forgot that we are "more than [our] chemistry, that the land is "more than its analysis."
Based on your reading in the Grapes of Wrath (up to Chapter 20) and chapters 5 and 6 in Fast Food Nation, what is your reaction to the movement away from a more intimate relationship between land and farmer, people and food? Who is to blame for this shift? It's easy to place sole blame on the big banks and businesses. Are they the only entities at fault?
As always, support your facts with specific details and evidence from both texts to support your claims. I expect a thorough, thoughtful, insightful response. Feel free to include outside sources to inform your argument. You all have a wealth of knowledge that exists outside the realm of this class.
Use it.
This assignment is due Sunday, December 9th, and peer responses are due by Monday, December 10th.