In the introduction to his book, Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey through the Heart of America’s Fast-Food Kingdom, Adam Chandler uses pathos as the central appeal to convince the audience in the strength of his reasoning. The Fries that Bind tells the story of the joy that was brought to a small Alaskan town by the fast-food giant Taco Bell. The employment of vivid imagery and emphasis on provoking emotions in his readers help the author reach his goal and make one think about the role fast-food culture plays in the American society. The claim that Chandler (2019) makes – that fast-food is an integral part of the American way of life – intrigues the audience and compels them to read the book. The story provided in the introduction is supported by conclusive statistics and brief history recap, as well as by enumeration of different American regions and fast-food chains without which one cannot imagine these areas. The intended audience is any American interested in the topic – of any age, gender, or race.
Eric Schlosser implements an approach resembling Chandler’s in the introduction to his book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Pathos as a method of convincing the audience in the argument he makes is employed by Schlosser (2012) in a similar fashion: he tells a fascinating story of the military installation in Colorado mountains. The build-up to the facility’s rugged workers being reliant on fast-food chains to provide them food takes a reader’s breath away and makes them want to explore the rest of the book. Schlosser’s (2012) claim is similar to the one Chandler (2019) makes: fast-food, its history and influence on the United States’ national culture are impossible to ignore. Support to the story is provided by a couple-of-pages-long foreword, epitomizing the fast-food industry’s influence in facts and numbers, as well as in the author’s reasoning about the cultural impact it has made. The book is intended for every American who wants to find out more about the subject.
References
Chandler, A. (2019). Drive-thru Dreams: A journey through the heart of America’s fast-food kingdom. Flatiron Books.
Schlosser, E. (2012). Fast food nation: The dark side of the all-American meal. Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.