Why I Stopped Being A Vegetarian By Laura Fraser Analysis

Improved Essays
Laughter has been said to be the best medicine of all. This medicine, however, cannot cure the effectiveness of an argument and instead can be seen to poison it in some cases. In Laura Fraser’s “Why I Stopped Being a Vegetarian,” Fraser depicts personal incidents of dabbling in vegetarianism and uses this to assert that people should not be vegetarian and instead decrease the amount of meat consumed. Though humor may then seem to be the appropriate method of conveying her opinion, it is often detrimental towards her argument because it causes her ideas to seem nonsensical and often apathetic towards those who wholeheartedly believe in vegetarianism. Hyperbole is ubiquitous in Fraser’s essay and is used as a means to create a memorable idea but instead seems to damage her …show more content…
With the loss of protein, it would be rational to t find a protein substitute. Cheese and carbohydrates replaced meat in her diet. “There’s a lot of evidence that vegetarians live longer, have lower cholesterol levels and are thinner than meat eaters. This is somewhat hard to believe since for the first few years of not eating meat, I was basically a cheesetarian” ( Fraser 547). Becoming a vegetarian is supposedly helpful in increasing weight loss and lowering cholesterol levels. Humor here thus disregards vegetarian philosophy causing the author to seem ignorant regarding the issue. Some may argue that her using this point was to prove that becoming vegetarian is not an automatic method towards weight loss and healthy eating in an entertaining way. This, however, is trivial when considering the numerous health issues regarding meat including higher risk of heart disease, higher blood pressure, and higher cholesterol levels. “One roasted bird unleashed fifteen years’ worth of cravings” (Fraser 549). Exaggeration can be a powerful tool as it enraptures the reader into feeling the powerful emotions the author is trying to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Walsh prosperously reveals his argument not trying to scare us into being vegetarians, but for us to make healthier food choices. The Article starts off by connecting with the reader deeply. He does this by making his point vivid with “packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won’t bite one another” (Swift 469). Swift uses the…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Together Against Meat Jonathan Safran Foer’s essay “Against Meat” provides the reader with information on why he became a vegetarian after years of “being a vegetarian” but eating meat once in a while; the essay starts off with his childhood memories at his grandmother’s house and her obsession with food due to the lack of it in World War II. At the age of 9 Foer had a baby sitter who he states “did not want to hurt anything” (451); that means she wouldn’t eat chicken or any animal, which triggered Foer to try becoming a vegetarian. Following the anecdotal introduction Foer speaks of his grandmother as the “Greatest Chef” (450), not particularly for how it tasted, yet Foer knew that a chef would have more than one recipe (chicken with carrots)…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Taking part in “Meatless Monday” means a little responding to the problems that our world has faced. 2) By “Polarizing” is meant that mostly the decision to eat or not to at factory farmed meat, the meat that comprises 99 % of the meat available in the US’s supermarkets nowadays refers to ethic, to morality and sequentially is a controversial one. By “personal” side of his assertion Jonathan Foer meant that each individual have the right to decide by his own, being aware of conditions, animal’s suffering and consequences, whether to consume factory farmed meat or not.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article “Flesh of Your Floods”, Foer neither has the authority or experience to write on the topic when most of early childhood and adult life choose not to consume meat, “During high school and college, he converted to vegetarianism several more times, partly to salve his conscience...” (Kolbert 3). If Foer is trying to convince, those who consume meat, to why they should consider dog for dinner is considered to be an opposing argument to his claim. In comparison to Foer demeaning and straight forward tone he seems to very persuasive to change the perception of what both meat lovers and vegetarians consume. Despite using any terms such as “we” or “us” until the very last two pages of the excerpt, Foer lets the reader take an insight on his own stubbornness views that may connect to the audiences when he says, “Can’t we get over our sentimentality?”…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tristram McPherson enthusiastically sets out to prove that killing animals under nearly any circumstance is morally wrong. In “Why I am Vegan”, he lays out a multitude of different reasons which it is wrong to kill even painlessly. McPherson has several very valid and reasonable ideas however they lack any type of support as to why they should be upheld. McPherson spends a lot of the second section considering the autonomy and future of the animals; however, more importantly he compares the killing of animals to the killing of humans. McPherson does not provide adequate reasoning for why the practice of killing animals is morally wrong.…

    • 1716 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My guess is that it would be somewhat the same. Also, without protein from meat, how healthy will the people in our world…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Payton White Professor Hunsaker 3 September 2016 Articles 26 & 27 After analyzing article 26, “Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases” by Alastair Norcross, a couple things become apparent. Such as (only use “such as” if you are continuing the sentence, but not to start a new sentence.) our author opening up his piece with a fictional scenario that seems a tad bit crazy, but serves as a very serious philosophical point. According to our ( it would be best to just say, “the” author instead of “our” author.) author, Norcross sees meat-eaters-at least those who know of the treatment of factory-farmed animals-are completely at fault for the consumption of meat.…

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While already a vegetarian, reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma allowed me to reexamine and thus reinforce my rationale for those choices: I have been a vegetarian since birth, so often times that choice is a passive one. There is a surplus of healthy options available for me without much active effort on my part, as a good portion of my family, immediate and extended, is vegetarian. In the modern age, the claim that humans need meat for optimal survival is unsubstantiated; in fact, a conscious vegetarian diet has been shown to have health benefits as well as environmental benefits.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When the average person thinks of a vegan, they think of a health-conscious, active, and hearty person. But what if a vegan was just as unhealthy as an omnivore who dines on McDonald’s over four times a week? In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, author Michael Pollan explains the importance of fulfilling all nutritional needs. The human population generally thinks of vegans as ultra-aware of their food, but what if the vegan diet causes the same problems it was designed to prevent? People should not pursue the vegan diet because it causes heart issues and is chemically based.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The author inserted this into this article to explain that becoming a vegetarian is not going to be easy. This is also related to how Foer was unsuccessful with the vegetarian lifestyle in his early twenties. He used this part of the article to explain how switching your dietary values aren’t just physically hard but emotionally and mentally challenging. The use of short stories in Against Meat gives the intended audience a less informal insight on Foer’s experiences on the road to…

    • 1034 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Approximately six to eight million adults in the United States eat no meat, fish or poultry… several million more have eliminated red meat but still eat chicken or fish…about two million have become vegans, forgoing not only animal flesh but also animal-based products such as milk, cheese, eggs, and gelatin” (“Becoming a Vegetarian”). Traditionally, research concerning vegetarianism strictly focused on nutritional deficiencies, but in recent years, studies are confirming and promoting meat-free diets. Nowadays, plant-based eating is well known as a way to reduce the risk for chronic illness and other health issues. Putting this in prospective, “In one of the largest studies with 76,000 participants concluded that vegetarians were, on average, 25% less likely to die of heart disease” (“Becoming a Vegetarian”). This is due to the high amounts of cholesterol and saturated fat in meat and animal products.…

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Animal cruelty has always been a challenge that gets overlooked by society in the food market. Many people do not take into consideration the life of the cow, chicken, or pig, and lots of other animals, while enjoying their juicy hamburger, chicken leg, and bacon. “An Animal’s Place” by Michael Pollan argues about animal liberation while using support from Peter Singer’s “Animal Liberation” book. Peter Singer is pro animal rights and has converted lots and outs of people over to vegetarianism, while Michael Pollan loves steak and seeks to see if Singer could convert him as well. Our world changes consistently with the trends of our society, from the civil rights movements of blacks and women, to the legalization of gay marriage.…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Against Being Vegan Veganism interest is receiving much attention from global media houses and health institutions. There are those who support a vegan lifestyle, and there are those that put across adamant arguments against veganism. Internet sources are misleading the society on issues about veganism, as they argue based on bustling opinions, hypothesis, and guesses. Only very few sources provide enough data to back up their arguments for or against veganism. The topic of veganism is a contentious issue that has brought unending debates full of emotions and social media wars.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Changing human diet can be a controversial topic and to change this omnivore’s mind one needs to present facts as cold as a fresh cut of meat. Marjorie Lee Garretson’s “More Pros Than Cons in a Meat-Free Life” is an essay that tries to persuade the reader to a vegan lifestyle under the guise of vegetarianism using few cited sources and trying to make the reader feel bad about the way they currently eat. “More Pros Than Cons in a Meat-Free Life” is a college level essay written by Marjorie Lee Garretson about the potential positives to vegetarian lifestyle. The essay first focuses on the health benefits of switching to vegetarianism which is done in three sentences claiming decreased cancer rates and longer life expectancy without any…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Ethical Argument In Animal Welfare

    • 1672 Words
    • 7 Pages
    • 10 Works Cited

    Many show that a major issue in animal welfare should be solved by vegetarianism and not torture animals to get their meat. As Freeman argues, “animals used for food in the United States are commonly treated like unfeeling tools of production, rather than living, feeling animals,” (Freeman 170). Many feel the need to reduce meat because of animal cruelty, and not because of the welfare of the…

    • 1672 Words
    • 7 Pages
    • 10 Works Cited
    Great Essays