Brainstorm" (topic, sub-topic, audience, main/claim,thesis statement, body paragraph topics, topic sentences, and minimum of six sources in MLA Citation via Works Cited Page)
Case - Talking to the Owls and Butterflies
Analyzing the situation
1. How would you describe the situation in which Lame Deer participates? Does this situation still exist?
2. What role does rhetorical ecology play in Lame Deer's argument about food?
3. To whom do you think Lame Deer intended his writing to be directed? Why do you think so?
Analyzing the Rhetoric
1. Why do you suppose that Lame Deer opted to write this essay in the second person, directing his words to "you"? Who is the "you" in this essay?
2. How do you interpret the last line of "Talking to the Owls and Butterflies"?
3. How would you describe the tone of "Talking to the Owls and Butterflies"? What specifically within the essay leads you to such a conclusion?
Discussing
1. In "Talking to the Owls and Butterflies," John Fire Lame Deer discusses a number of issues: food, consumption, culture, nature, spirituality, sustain-ability, and oppression, to name a few. Because this essay covers so much territory, we can assume that for Lame Deer there is a connection between food and how we think ecologically. As a class, consider first how Lame Deer makes these connections. Then discuss how or if these connections are also evident in how your local community addresses food.
2. How do you respond to Lame Deer's description of what good food is? How do you respond to his characterization of the foods that "white people" eat?
3. Why does Lame Deer emphasize the relationship between "food" and "nature"? How would you describe the relationship between food and nature in terms of the foods that you most often eat?
Case - The Pleasure of Eating
Analyzing the Situation
1. How would you describe the situation in which "The Pleasure of Eating" participates? Is it an important situation, one you think many people are invested in?
2. What are the roles of institution and power in the situation in which "The Pleasure of Eating" participates?
3. One can fairly explicitly identify who the audience and who the speaker are in the situation in which "The Pleasure of Eating" participates, but what role do players have in this situation? Who might the players in this situation be?
Analyzing the Rhetoric
1. How would you characterize Berry's language in "The Pleasure of Eating"?
2. What rhetorical appeal does Berry rely mostly on to make his arguments?
3. Why do you suppose Berry decided to title his essay "The Pleasure of Eating" when the essay is primarily about how Americans have lost touch with their food? What does he accomplish through this title?
Discussing
1. Berry says that eating is an agricultural act and then explains what he means by that. But is eating, as Berry explains it, also an ecological act? Why or why not?
2. Berry describes knowing about one's food as a kind of ethical responsibility, and he suggests that not wanting to know about one's food is embracing ignorance. On a daily basis, do you really want to know about your food in the ways that Berry says we should know about our food? As a class, discuss whether you want to know your food, or if the compliance of ignorance has a particular kind of next.
3. Do you think your eating habits would change anal had a more intimate knowledge of the food you eat?