Themes Of Pans Labyrinth - 946 Words

External and Internal Conflicts In Ofelia’s World Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth tells the story of Ofelia who experiences magical encounters in this fantasy. One night, a fairy leads her into a hidden labyrinth where she meets a faun who tells her that she is a lost princess. He assigns her three dangerous tasks to prove herself and to claim immortality alongside her father. Meanwhile, her step-father, the captain of a merciless, violent army in fascist Spain attempts to stop a guerrilla uprising. Ofelia struggles to meet the demands of the faun before time runs out. Through this quest, she interacts with creatures and challenges that create a monstrous environment. Director, Guillermo Del Toro was born and grew up in†¦show more content†¦The film grossed $80 million worldwide despite the $18 million budget. Respectively, the film has been nominated and awarded awards since its release in 2006. Pan’s Labyrinth has won a total of three Oscars for best makeup and hair, best cinematography and best art direction (Davies, Shaw, Tierney 173). The film, despite its distinct genre and language, describes the struggles of Spain and the effects war has on its population. Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth utilizes both oral and visual conventions to emphasize the monstrous characteristics in Ofelia’s environment that harm her mentality, leading to her â€Å"death†. For the context of this paper, a monster is â€Å"something extraordinary or unnatural, any imaginary creature that is large, ugly, and frightening† (OED). A faun is described as,â€Å"one of a class of rural deities; at first represented like men with horns and the tail of a goat, afterwards with goats legs like the Satyrs, to whom they were assimilated in lustful character† (OED). Another important term is a labyrinth. A labyrinth is defined as â€Å" a structure formed by paths bordered by high hedges, typically as a feature in a garden† (OED). Ofelia’s magical world is inhabited by monsters. The first task the faun assigns Ofelia requires her to meet an ugly creature. This ugly creature is a huge frog, covered in slime who is surrounded by and feeds off of bugs. The frog’s skin is rough and a shadeShow MoreRelatedThe Theme of Obedience in Pans Labyrinth1553 Words   |  7 PagesEl Laberinto del Fauno Obedience is a recurrent theme in El Laberinto del Fauno, discuss at least two examples and what they represent. In El Laberinto del Fauno, Guillermo del Toro uses the theme of obedience to illustrate and condemn two repressive components of fascism: patriarchy and the coercion of free will. This essay will look at two examples of obedience in the film which reveal the abhorrent nature of these aspects of fascism and the importance of resisting them. These are, respectivelyRead MoreDystopian Themes In Pans Labyrinth By Guillermo Del Toro949 Words   |  4 Pages The movie Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro shares similar dystopian themes with Suzanne Collins’s book The Hunger Games through the collective use of the power struggle trope. Sub-themes of risk-taking and disobedience, struggle for control of resources, and lack of mercy by powerful leaders make up the conflicts between protagonists and antagonists in both works. These commonalities between the two works point towards a utopia that can be described as a society where people are in controlRead MorePans Labyrinth Film Analysis Essay1208 Words   |  5 PagesVanessa Salfen 6/29/2012 Visual Analysis Pan’s Labyrinth: A Visual Analysis Pan’s Labyrinth, originally titled El laberinto del fauno, was published in 2006 by the Spanish director Guillermo del Toro. The story is set in the year 1944, in the country-side of a post-Civil War Spain. A young and imaginative girl named Ofelia, played by Ivana Baquero, travels with her pregnant mother, Carmen Vidal, who is very ill; in order to meet and live with her stepfather, a cruel and sadistic man named CapitanRead MorePans Labyrinth775 Words   |  4 Pages* Pan’s Labyrinth: A Depiction of Post-Civil War Spain * The film â€Å"Pan’s Labyrinth† is a cinematic masterpiece of 2006, directed and written by Guillermo del Toro. Although the film is considered partly within the fantasy genre, several of the themes within the film reflect certain historical realities of post-civil war Spain. Themes of reality versus fantasy, gender roles, and children and war are developed within the film. Pan’s Labyrinth takes place during the Francoist period of 1944Read MoreA Compare and Contrast of Horror and Science Fiction/Fantasy Genres1777 Words   |  7 Pagessimilar as they have at several occasions been blended together, but their basic, common theme serves different meanings about humans. I shall compare and contrast these two genres and focus on both classic films and modern films. From the Horror genre perspective I shall discuss Psycho (1960) and The Mist (2007), while in the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre I will examine 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), and Serenity (2005). Although the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre and the HorrorRead MorePans Labyrinth Film Analysis1347 Words   |  6 Pagesseems to coincide with an unsettling environment. For instance, Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo Del Toro and Night of the Shooting Stars by Giuliani G. De Negri both focus on the idea of fiction centered around a destructive ambience. Both movi es take place in a deteriorating war zone in which the main characters manage to escape temporarily but still witness horrific event that they manifest into their own type of dream reality. Pan’s Labyrinth takes place during the Spanish Civil War where a young OfeliaRead MoreMyth, Religion, and Violence in Pan’s Labyrinth and Bless Me, Ultima: A Comparative Analysis1346 Words   |  6 PagesRudolfo Anaya’s, Bless Me, Ultima and Guillermo del Toro’s, Pan’s Labyrinth are two coming-of-age stories. Both the novel and the movie are full of events that contribute to the disillusionment of the main character’s childhood idealism and the realization of the real world they live in. Both protagonists absorb themselves in a mythical world full of fantasy and each receives exposure to religious theology and trauma by the violence of men. Despite the fact that Antonio and Ofelia have differentRead MoreSelf- Sacrifice in the Movie Pan ´s Ladyrinth1361 Words   |  5 PagesNothing can be achieved if an individual is not willing to sacrifice; this idea is presented throughout the Movie â€Å"Pan’s Labyrinth†, and is effectively represented by the two female characters, Ofelia and Mercedes. The movie develops within a feminized world between two female characters Ofelia and Mercedes, they may be different in age and life experience, however; they share many similarities in characters and relationship with Captain Vidal. Furthermore, Ofelia and Mercedes are closely connectedRead MorePans Labyrinth Essay633 Words   |  3 PagesPans Labyrinth The director Guillero Del Torro uses many motifs and parallels in his film Pans Labyrinth. The most obvious parallel in the film is the parallel between the real world and the fantasy world of the character Ofelia. Both worlds are filled with danger. At any second in both of these worlds your life could be lost. Del Torro separates the real world from the fantasy world with many visual motifs. One of the visual motifs is the extreme differences in the color of the worldsRead MoreEssay on Spanish Cinema After the Dictatorship in 19751822 Words   |  8 Pagesthe hands of film makers, such as Pedro Almodà ³var, Fernando Trueba and Guillermo Del Toro in the late 20th century and early 21st century. These directors have created films which dealt with themes of nationality and national history, such as Todo sobre mi madre (Pedro Almodà ³var, 1999) and Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro, 2006). Although Spanish cinema only started to develop into a distinctive style later in the 20th century due to the end of censorship and propaganda regimes, some film

Accuracy And Accuracy Of Knowledge - 1595 Words

Knowledge is considered accurate when there is sufficient evidence that it is the truth. Over time, methods of verifying the accuracy of knowledge change. As learners, we often equate accuracy with the value of knowledge, however, the value of accuracy is dependent on the area of knowledge under consideration. Today, accuracy in the natural sciences is vital as any error can be catastrophic. In 1986, a flawed reactor and human error caused the Chernobyl disaster that exposed millions to radiation and had significant long term impacts. However in history, complete â€Å"accuracy† is almost unattainable. As historians cannot first-hand experience past events, they can only try to make connections with available sources to suggest what happened†¦show more content†¦Through the constant pursuit of knowledge, people began to put a greater emphasis on empirical evidence rather than religion and its faith in the unobserved, and parts of these sacred texts began to be ignor ed and upon the discovery of new contradicting information, even re-interpreted. In the Age of Enlightenment (1600-1800), there was shift from accepting traditional beliefs to challenging them. This raises the knowledge question, to what extent has knowledge in the natural sciences become more objective and less dependent on religious knowledge over time? For centuries, churches in Italy were repeatedly destroyed by lightning. In 1769, the Church of San Nazaro containing gunpowder exploded after being struck by lightning, destroying one sixth of the city and killing over 3000 people. Despite placing iron rods on roofs being proven successful in preventing lightning strikes, the theory suggested that lightning was an electrical phenomenon, and not controlled by Satan, so the church rejected this. Following the tragedy did the Roman Catholic Church withdraw its objection to lightning rods. In the natural sciences, knowledge is based on what can be observed and proven through experiments. Before scientific discoveries were made, people relied on faith to explain what they could not observe. However, by discovery through trial and error,Show MoreRelatedKnowledge, Error, And Accuracy1356 Words   |  6 Pages â€Å"Error is as valuable as accuracy in the production of knowledge.† To what extent is this the case in two areas of knowledge? It has been a very famous saying that â€Å"nobody or nothing is perfect† , there is some kind of error in them. From the perspective of human beings, an error has been always seen a bad thing, as an error can be a hurdle between their aim. From my academics to daily life I have encountered with errors besides accuracy and I was always wondering why we have to deal withRead MoreMethods For Improving Accuracy Of Organizational Data, Information, And Knowledge1710 Words   |  7 PagesA. Methods to Ensure Accuracy Our school organization uses a variety of methods to ensure accuracy of organizational data, information, and knowledge. The first method our school organization uses to ensure accuracy is all data for benchmark assessments and end of year assessments, that is used to assess our school organization, student growth and proficiency, is computer generated using excel spread sheets creating graphs and charts to ensure data is accurate. The end of year school report isRead MoreDifference Between Accuracy And Simplicity1539 Words   |  7 Pagessciences, as well as their record keeping in history. How easy to understand, natural, simple, can achieving this accuracy in knowledge be? The trade-off between accuracy and simplicity differs from the natural sciences area of knowledge (AOK) where the trade-off is limited, and history where the trade-off is unavoidable in the use of accuracy over simplicity. The relationship between accuracy and simplicity in natural sciences are that they work together instead of against each other in a trade offRead MoreData Extraction Of Knowledge From High Volume Of Data Essay1233 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction: Data mining is extraction of knowledge from high volume of data. In this data stream mining experiment, I have used â€Å"sorted.arff† dataset contains 540888 instances and 22 attributes. I have tried two single algorithms and two ensemble algorithms, tested the accidents on road for last 15 years. Weka: Data Mining Software Weka (â€Å"Waikato Environment for knowledge Analysis†) is a collection of algorithms and tools used for data analysis. The algorithms can be applied directly or it canRead MoreThe Goals Of Language Learning And Teaching1019 Words   |  5 PagesThe goals of language learning and teaching Introduction It is generally recognized that language is a vehicle for the expression or exchanging of thoughts, concepts, knowledge, and information as well as the fixing and transmission of experience and knowledge.(Bussmann, 1996: 253) Language is the method in which people from certain culture organize their thoughts, helping them to communicate with each other. Moreover, language shapes their relationship with other cultural people, and differentRead MoreEssay on Sensory Perceptions882 Words   |  4 Pageseffective as the human brain can process the information. The accuracy of these inputs can easily be deceived when the senses conflict or not interpreted as intended. Like any other computer, the information being processed and stored is only as good as the information was input (garbage in, garbage out). Sensory information is almost always subject to interpretation and will certainly influence the thought process regardless of the accuracy of the data. Inherently, sensory information will only beRead MoreWhat Is The Accuracy Of Two 3D Printing Techniques Commonly Used?1167 Words   |  5 PagesThe accuracy of two 3D printing techniques commonly used in orthodontics was assessed in this study. A unique aspect of this research was that 3D printed models were produced from digital impressions acquired directly from the oral environment, and then compared to stone models. The importance of this comparison was the ability to evaluate the entire digital workflow from directly acquiring a digital impression from the oral environment to producing a 3D printed model of it. To our knowledge, thereRead MoreCognitive Process And Consumer Behavior And Purchasing Choices1746 Words   |  7 Pages(576870851) ‘This research project observes the Vancouver Island University code of conduct’ TABLE OF CONTENT CONCEPT OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....3 COGNITIVE PROCESS ANALYSIS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.3 COGNITIVE ACCURACY†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.4 COMPONENTS OF COGNITIVE ACCURACY†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...4, 5 FACTORS AFFECTING PURCHASING DECISIONS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.5 CONTROLLING LEARNING HABIT†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦6, 7 RESSISTANCE AND ADOLESCENT CASE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....8 CONSLUSION†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..9Read MoreCorrelation Between Openness And The Accuracy Of An Individual s Answers1098 Words   |  5 Pagesand hypotheses: 1) Is openness related to general knowledge? Openness reflects how curious and inquisitive a person is and to what extent they might invest in intellectual activities (Furnham et al., 2008). Therefore, I hypothesize that we should see a significant positive correlation between openness and the accuracy of an individual’s answers. Accuracy is the ability to discriminate between existing and fake items, which indicates knowledge (Paulhus et al., 2003). This relationship has been reportedRead MoreStudents With Autism : Concepts And Implications In Students With Autism746 Words   |  3 Pagespeers during time one and time two their peers outperformed them at time point three. Print knowledge was found to be lower for students with autism at all three-time points (Dynia et al., 2016). In addition, while alphabet knowledge seemed to be learned at a similar rate more variability was found in students with autism (Dynia et al., 2016). This study was one of the first to examine how print knowledge develops in students with auti sm over time. Dynia et al. (2016) acknowledged that because of

Processed Foods and Its Link to the Increasing Obesity Epidemic Free Essays

Processed Foods and its Link to the Increasing Obesity Epidemic Savannah Eisert English 214-54 Melanie Wise 15 April 2013 Eisert 1 Processed Foods and its Link to the Increasing Obesity Epidemic Lunchables, Twinkies, potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, or even a trip to McDonald’s after school are just few of the memorable foods as a child that always seemed so exciting and delicious. As a child, I wondered why these scrumptious foods were always just a treat, but never an every day meal on my diet that I could enjoy. But what I did not know was the dirty truth behind these foods: what they are really made out of. We will write a custom essay sample on Processed Foods and Its Link to the Increasing Obesity Epidemic or any similar topic only for you Order Now Behind food corporation doors lies the truth about processed foods, what they are really made out of, and why these corporations keep producing these foods. Through the years, scientists have found different ways to transform this corn so it becomes more useful and cheaper to produce. As the corporations became more and more money hungry, the less they cared about the health of Americans and more about how much processed foods they could sell. Ultimately, this leads to the most increasing health issue America has been facing over the years, and to this day: obesity. According to HBO’s â€Å"The Weight of the Nation: Confronting America’s Obesity Epidemic,† over one-third of American adults (roughly about 36%) are obese, and about 12. 5 million children and adolescents (ages 2-19), or 17%, are obese. Over the years, as processed food production increased, so did obesity because of money hungry food corporations increasing this productivity and government doing nothing to help stop the unhealthy lifestyles processed food has created. Background Information on Processed Food Before figuring out why processed foods are a main factor to obesity, one must know what processed foods are and why they are bad. So what exactly are processed foods made out of? Michael Pollan goes into deep research about what these processed foods are made out of within his nonfiction book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. According to Michael Pollan, an average American consumes about one ton of corn per year, but not before being heavily processed by a processing plant, and then reassembled as soft drinks, breakfast cereals, or snacks (85). As Eisert 2 science progressively grew, so did the certain ingredients within processed foods. For example, high-fructose corn syrup is used in a majority of foods because it tastes exactly as sweet as sucrose. Pollan’s research states that high-fructose corn syrup today â€Å"is the most valuable food product refined from corn, accounting for 530 million bushels every year† (89). Because high-fructose corn syrup is easy to use and cheap to get, most food corporations use it to create the perfect masterpiece. For example, Pollan talks about how that the third age of processed foods â€Å"push[es] aside butter to make shelf space for margarine, replace fruit juice with juice drinks and then entirely juice-free drinks like Tang, cheese with Cheez Whiz, and whipped cream with Cool Whip† (91). With the help of high-fructose corn syrup, food alternatives can easily be made for the same satisfaction. Because of these processed foods, obesity begins to increase. But how exactly does processed food cause obesity? Michael Pollan investigates the truth behind food science and it’s ways to get people to eat more. Pollan states, â€Å"The power of food science lies in its ability to break foods down into their nutrient parts and then reassemble them in specific ways that, in effect, push our evolutionary buttons, fooling the omnivore’s inherited food selection system† (107). Since an average adult can eat only about fifteen hundred pounds of food a year, food corporations are trying to find ways to â€Å"get people to spend more money for the same three-quarters of tof a ton of food, or entice them to actually eat more than that† (Pollan 95). So if a person eats more than normal, his or her weight will increase as they are intaking more of these processed foods that entices people to eat more. But what specifically triggers a person’s body to eat more than they naturally should? Food systems in a person can â€Å"cheat by exaggerating their energy density, tricking a sensory apparatus that evolved to deal with markedly less dense whole foods† (Pollan 107). So by increasing this energy density in processed foods, obesity problems seen within America continue to rise. Eisert 3 The Increase in Processed Food and Obesity Over the Years The beginning of processed food did not recently happen, but has been around since the mid-1800’s. In Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, he explains the journey of how corn developed to what it is today. In 1866, â€Å"corn syrup . . . ecame the first cheap domestic substitute for cane sugar† (Pollan 88). Then as corn refining started to be perfected, high-fructose corn syrup became quite popular. Pollan states that high-fructose corn syrup â€Å"is the most valuable food product refined from corn, accounting for 530 million bushels every year† (89). Once these different food processes w ere discovered, processed foods began making their way into the country. At first, the point of having processed food was to free â€Å"people from nature’s cycles of abundance and scarcity,† so to have food preserved longer (Pollan 91). But as time went on, the goal changed from â€Å"liberating food from nature† (Pollan 91) to â€Å"improve[ing] on nature† (Pollan 91). Since processed foods began to be so easy to make with the help of high-fructose corn syrup, the cost to make it was relatively cheap compared to the natural farmers. Pollans statistics show that â€Å"a dollar spent on a whole food such as eggs, $0. 40 finds its way back to the farmer . . . by comparison, George Naylor will see only $0. 04 of every dollar spent on corn sweeteners† (95). So ultimately, the increase in processed foods have to do with its easy and cheap ingredients. Based on Michael Pollan’s studies, he found out that many of the reasons why obesity has increased so much is due to the increased use of high-fructose corn syrup in the foods people eat. Pollan begins by saying that â€Å"corn accounts for most of the surplus calories we’re growing and most of the surplus calories we’re eating† (103). With today’s advanced technology, the country has gone from being able to process corn into two different things, to now creating over hundreds of things with the help of a processor and corn. Pollan’s statistics show that â€Å"since 1985, an American’s annual consumption of high-fructose corn syrup has gone from Eisert 4 forty-five pounds to sixty-six pounds† (104). On top of the high-fructose corn syrup people intake, the other sugars also must be accounted for. Therefore, this excessive amount of sugars in processed food is the main cause to the increase of obesity in America. Who is to Blame? Behind all the corn, the processing, and the food that results, is the man in charge: food corporations. Because of food corporations greed for money, processed foods have escalated out of control, causing a serious health epidemic: obesity. Michael Pollan, also author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, wrote an article for the New York Times called â€Å"Unhappy Meals. † Pollan makes a very convincing point at the beginning of the article that gives a serious blame to the people who created and have been continuing the making of processed foods: These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat (1). His claim is very much true because these food corporations try to trick the customers into thinking food products are okay to eat, when in reality, they are terrible for a person’s health in the long run. Food corporations have come to a point where they are more interested in how well their company is doing rather than the country’s health. So ultimately, the rise in obesity is because of these food productions little interest to care about the health of the country. In Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he proves that food corporations are only interested in the money rather than the well-being of the country. He says that a â€Å"cheaper agricultural commodities [are] driving food companies to figure out new and ever more elaborate ways to add value and so induce us to buy more† (Pollan 96). So if these companies are driven by the Eisert 5 cheap food productions, they will make sure sales to the people of the country increase, therefore increasing the obesity epidemic. Why blame these food corporations for the obesity epidemic? Aren’t they just trying to help the economy by selling the food they produce? Yes, this is very true, but that does not mean these corporations have the right to sell the country unhealthy, life threatening foods. According to Michael Pollan’s research in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, American’s high-fructose corn syrup intake has gone up from forty-five pounds to sixty-six pounds (104). Basically, Pollan states that Americans are â€Å"eating and drinking all that high-fructose corn syrup on top of the sugars we were already consuming† (104). Just because big corporations, like Coca-Cola and Pepsi figured out high-fructose corn syrup was a few cents cheaper than sugar, they completely switched from sugar to high-fructose corn syrup because â€Å"consumers didn’t seem to notice the substitution† (104). Pollan’s research shows that soda is most of the sixty-six pounds of high-fructose corn syrup that American consume, and by using the ingredient that causes obesity into one of the most popular drink is just cruel because food corporations target that area of consumption. So it is quite obvious the corporations do not care about the rise in obesity because they keep using high-fructose corn syrup in most of the foods consumed by Americans. In another study, George A Bray from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition makes interesting connections in his article â€Å"Consumption of High-Fructose Corn Syrup in Beverages May Play a Role in the Epidemic of Obesity† between the rise in obesity and the rising intake of high-fructose corn syrup in America. His studies show that â€Å"the consumption of HFCS increased 1000% between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group† (Bray 537). With the rise in consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, the increase of obesity in America connects with these statistics. Bray also concludes that Eisert 6 â€Å"collective data suggest[s] that overconsumption of beverages sweetened with HFCS, [or high-fructose corn syrup,] and containing 50% free fructose and the increased intake of total fructose may play a role in the epidemic of obesity† (542). Bray’s statistics support Pollan’s beverage assumptions because it goes to show that food corporations are willing to increase high-fructose corn syrup even if the epidemic of obesity increases with its increase in production. Resolution As more people become aware of the obesity epidemic in America, they wish to change their lifestyles in order to be healthy again. Even though these people know what is going on, they still do not change their lifestyles. But they have good reasons, according to Michael Pollan’s reasonings in The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Pollan explains how the food corporations have â€Å"push[ed] our evolutionary buttons, fooling the omnivore’s inherited food selection system â€Å" (107). Even though humans are not meant to eat these foods, the sensory apparatus in within humans have evolved to always crave these processed foods. It has even gotten to a point where â€Å"people with limited money to spend on food would spend it on the cheapest calories they can find† (Pollan 108). These are perfect examples to why the processed food lifestyle continues, and why the epidemic of obesity continues to increase. So the real question is how does America resolve the epidemic of obesity? Yes, food corporations are to blame, but they will keep producing processed foods to help their economic success. So as a country, alternatives and powerful influences must be introduced in order to decrease obesity. Michael Pollan’s article â€Å"Unhappy Meals† in The New York Times, has lots of certain advice to steer away from the tricks of processed foods and have America move into a healthier lifestyle. He suggests that processed foods imply they are based around important nutrients to help support human health, when in reality it gives the opposite effects to the body. Eisert 7 Pollan does in fact state that the healthy lifestyle is â€Å"harder to do in practice, given the food environment we now inhabit and the loss of sharp cultural tools to guide us through it† (11), but he gives readers simple ways to start a healthy lifestyle. Some of the most simple advice includes â€Å"eat[ing] according to the rules of a traditional food culture† (Pollan 12). By eating natural foods that are locally grown and produced, one will know how it is being made and by whom, so there are no mysteries or health questions within these foods. Lastly, â€Å"avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number — or that contain high-fructose corn syrup† (Pollan 11). Just by following these two simple steps, a person can make their health that much better by doing the little things to help themselves. Yes, there are other alternatives, but they become confusing and technical. If a person is simply aware of what is being put into their body, then a healthy lifestyle can be achieved. Even though people are personally trying to become healthier, what about the people that are not? They need influential and powerful support in order to avoid the obesity epidemic. The government would be the perfect influence to helping change the obesity epidemic. But in Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, the government does little to help even though they are aware of the issue: While the surgeon general is raising alarms over the epidemic of obesity, the president is signing farm bills designed to keep the river of cheap corn flowing, guaranteeing that the cheapest calories in the supermarket will continue to be the unhealthiest (108). So if the government won’t even help, who will? That is where the people come in. Becoming aware of the problem and knowing what a person is putting into their bodies will be the only way to end the increase in the production of processed food, and to furthermore decrease obesity. In conclusion, as processed food production increased, so did obesity because of money hungry food corporations increasing this productivity and government doing nothing to Eisert 8 help stop the unhealthy lifestyles processed food has created. Through the statistics found in the research it shows how the increases simultaneously occurred at the same time, therefore processed food is a major factor to an increase in obesity. Work Cited Bray , George A, Samara Joy Nielsen, and Barry M Popkin. â€Å"Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity. † 2004 American Society for Clinical Nutrition. 79. 4 (2003): 537-543. Web. 11 Mar. 2013.. Ebbeling, Cara, Dorota B Pawlak, and David S Ludwig. â€Å"Childhood obesity: public-health crisis, common sense cure. † Lancet. 360. 331 (2002): 473–482. Web. 11 Mar. 2013. . Pollan, Michael. Omnivore’s Dilemma. New York City: A Penguin Book, 2006. Print. Pollan, Michael. â€Å"Unhappy Meal. † New York Times. 28 01 2007: 1-12. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. . Research Paper Feedback In reading your research paper, I have considered the following features of the document. Any areas that need work are highlighted oIntroducti on – grabs the readers’ attention; introduces the topic; contains a clear, strong thesis oContent – covers the topic fully; supports assertions with information from reliable sources; includes a reference page Organization – is logically organized; ideas are grouped and sequenced to aide the readers’ understanding oParagraph Development— ¶s contain specific examples/evidence (in the form of quotes and paraphrases) and explanations oTopic Sentences—introduce the subject of each paragraph; create idea bridges that link  ¶s to each other and/or thesis oTransitions—logical connections between ideas are clear smooth oSentence Fluency—sentences are fluent and varied in construction and length (not choppy); quotes are smoothly incorporated oMLA Format—sources are cited; both inline citations and reference page citations conform to MLA style Proofreading—free of usage, punctuation, and grammatical errors. Here are the grades and what they mean: oAn â€Å"A† paper excels in all the areas listed above. The paper covers the topic fully and answers the readers’ questions. The paper uses evidence from multiple, credible sources to back up claims. Sources are cited according to MLA style guidelines. The writing is clearly organized, excellently developed, fluent, and nearly error free. oA â€Å"B† paper does a good job in all the areas above. The paper offers a thoughtful, complete response to the prompt. It is clearly organized and well developed. The sentences are consistently readable and fluent with few usage errors. Areas that need work are highlighted above. oA â€Å"C† paper is a competent response to the prompt, but may have weaknesses in one or more of the areas listed above. The weaknesses interfere with the successful communication of the writer’s ideas. Areas that need work are highlighted above. oA paper earns an â€Å"NP† if it does not answer the prompt and/or is seriously weak in one or more of the areas listed above. The paper’s weaknesses make it very difficult to read and/or understand. Areas that need work are highlighted above. Comments and Grade: How to cite Processed Foods and Its Link to the Increasing Obesity Epidemic, Essays