Book Club Discussion Questions
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
Introduction Next to death and taxes, fast food might be the most unavoidable experience for Americans. In an age when
Ronald McDonald is the second most identifiable fictional character to young children (after Santa Claus), fast food embodies a number of modern American characteristics: the familiar, the ready-made, and the easily disposable. Fast food restaurants are not only a staple on street corners but are becoming fixtures in schools and even hospitals. These ubiquitous chain restaurants have assumed such a large role in American life that they are largely taken for granted.
In the critically acclaimed and nationally bestselling
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser embarks on a journey that raises some disturbing questions about the practices and the food of those big corporations with the family friendly mascots. Schlosser goes out into the field to interview workers and to see the current beef processing practices that have allowed ground beef to become efficient carriers of e. coli and other potentially harmful bacteria. He reveals the collusion between the federal government and corporations that fosters unsafe working conditions for fast food workers and meat packing employees.
He also examines the alarming obesity epidemic among children and adults in the United States and stresses that this "supersizing" of Americans into the context of an epidemic that needs to be urgently needs to be addressed.
Discussion Questions
- Schlosser discusses the eagerness of fast food companies to avoid hiring skilled workers and to rely instead upon highly unskilled workers. In fact, some chains openly embrace "zero training" as their ultimate goal. Since these companies are providing a steady paycheck, is it really the obligation of fast food chains to take an interest in their workers and to teach them job skills? Also, since many of the workers are recently arrived immigrants, doesn't employment at fast food restaurants offer them a toehold in the American economy and an opportunity to move onto a better job?
- Over the last several decades, fast food companies have aggressively targeted children in their marketing efforts. Should advertisers be permitted to target children who lack the sophistication to make informed decisions and are essentially being lured into eating high fat, high calorie food through toys and cute corporate mascots? Is it possible that fast food companies - like tobacco companies - are recruiting increasingly younger consumers in order to insure a steady customer base as their older constituents die from heart disease, diabetes, and other obesity-related disorders?
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- How does the author develop themes of identity and belonging throughout the narrative?
- What role does the setting play in shaping the characters' decisions and relationships?
- Discuss how the ending reframes the events of the story. Were you surprised?
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Harper Perennial.
Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
