Paragraph Analysis on In-N-Out Burger and Fast Food Nation

The following article was written as an assignment for the Analytical Reading and Writing class.

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Often people buy a book at a bookstore after reading the first few pages to make sure that the book is interesting enough to continue reading at home. That is why Amazon has a "Click to LOOK INSIDE!" button on each book. The introduction is the most important part of a whole book in order to catch potential readers. One would expect that both In-N-Out Burger and Fast Food Nation must have strong hooks at the beginning since they were both New York Times bestsellers. Although they both focus on fast food industry, there is quite a contrast in the ways they are written. In the prologue of In-N-Out Burger, the author Stacy Perman writes not about the hamburgers or the company, but mainly about the phenomena that the burgers caused. On the other hand, in the introduction of Fast Food Nation, the author Eric Schlosser splits it into two different parts, a story about Cheyenne Mountain Base and a quick overview of fast food industry. Throughout the prologue of In-N-Out Burger, Perman successfully gets the attention of the readers by describing the facts in detail, which makes them want to turn the pages for further reading. On the contrary, despite Schlosser's concise and precise narrative, the introduction of Fast Food Nation does not seem to make the readers want to read more due to his unsuccessful analogy of the base and burger and awkward composition of the chapter. The introduction of In-N-Out Burger definitely draws more attention of the readers than that of Fast Food Nation due to the rhetoric, reading strategy, and composition.

First of all, the facts shown in In-N-Out Burger stir the readers' strong interests to the topic, whereas Fast Food Nation displays the facts only to convince them. In In-N-Out Burger, Perman introduces many episodes with details. In the middle of the chapter, she quotes what many celebrities actually said about the burgers, which makes the readers understand how much they love the burgers. She introduces an episode that Tom Hanks loves the burgers so much that he rented an In-N-Out cookout trailer for the set while filming the movie The Green Mile (Perman 8). This episode sounds very realistic and impressive for the readers with the actual information. She continues to reveal similar facts for the whole chapter, which leaves a strong impression to the readers that the burgers, in fact, have some kind of power or magic to make people crazy about them. On the other hand, Schlosser gives many figures and statistics as the evidence of his points in his book. He shows them mainly to compare the situations now and the time when fast-food industry was growing rapidly. He quotes figures such as the amount of money Americans have spent on fast food (Schlosser 3), the numbers of mothers who worked and had young children in 1975 (Schlosser 4), and the numbers of hamburgers and French fries that an average American has every week (Schlosser 6). They are very effective to persuade the readers that fast food actually changed people's eating habits, but are only used to prove what he says. Both authors reveal facts effectively to the readers, but Perman seems to be more successful in using many good examples that are very familiar with the readers and enable them to think the next question about the burgers and company themselves. Schlosser's figures strongly support what he wants to say, but they just end there and do not work as a curiosity booster.

Perman depicts the story in detail and leaves strong impression at the end, whereas Schlosser makes a short summary of the book at the end that fulfills the readers' interests. In In-N-Out Burger, Perman starts the chapter with detailed description of the opening day of a new burger shop in a local town without any background information of the burgers or the company. The readers can feel the atmosphere of that moment and imagine how big an event it was for a small town like Tucson, Arizona. Descriptions like, "businessmen in suits, women in heels, truckers in jeans, college students in T-shirts and with pierced noses, construction workers in heavy boots, and moms with babies on their hips" (Perman 1) makes it easier for the readers to visualize the scene on that day. Fast Food Nation also has well-depicted parts at the beginning of the chapter. Schlosser starts his story describing a gigantic military installation under the Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. He illustrates the details inside the base. The beginnings of both books are quite impressive with detailed descriptions. In the later part, both Perman and Schlosser become less descriptive due to their own reasons. Instead of revealing more facts, Perman introduces just the rumors about the company among the burger fans, which leaves the readers a little unsatisfied and much interest. She also gives a quick overview of the company's recent scandal at the end, but not in detail. This is how she ends the introduction. On the other hand, after illustrating the military base under the mountain, Schlosser kindly explains the main points of the whole book in short for the readers ("This is a book about fast food, the values it embodies, and the world it has made." (Schlosser 3)) including his true motivation for why writing this book ("Most of all, I am concerned about its impact on the nation's children." (Schlosser 9)). In the later part of the chapter, Perman gives the readers an incentive to know more about the burgers and company by introducing many unfolded stories at the end, whereas Schlosser writes a summary of the entire book, which may satisfy the readers then, but does not encourage them to go on to the next chapter. In this point, the introduction of In-N-Out Burger works better than that of Fast Food Nation.

The most effective point that makes In-N-Out Burger different from Fast Food Nation is found in their compositions. From a functional point of view, the introduction of In-N-Out Burger works much better than that of Fast Food Nation by guiding the readers with much expectation to the beginning of untold, upcoming long story at the end of the chapter. As mentioned earlier, Perman starts her story with many hooks, which motivate the readers to continue to read the following chapters. She uses a number of actual details and facts to impress the readers into believing that the burgers are something great and making them want to know more about what makes people crazy about the burgers, what kind of people the owners are, and what actually happened behind the counter. She deliberately leaves the readers full of questions and with deeper interests, using words like "speculation" (Perman 9), "rumor," "gossip," and "numerous questions" (Perman 10). On the other hand, in the introduction of Fast Food Nation, Schlosser draws an analogy between a military base constructed under Cheynee Mountain and the dark side of the fast-food industry. He does it because both conceal "remarkable technological advances behind an ordinary-looking façade" (Schlosser 7), but fast-food hamburgers and natural scenery may be a bit hard to overlap in the readers' mind. Starting an introduction with an unexpected episode is a good way to unfold a long story, but in his case, it is not well-connected to the next episode. An introduction needs to "hook" the readers strongly. He might succeed in it, but he also has to bring the readers to the following chapters while maintaining the strong interests. It seems obvious that he does not seem to succeed as he has to explain the analogy with his own words later in the chapter. All the questions left unanswered are good hints in advance for the readers to continue reading. In that sense, Perman's prologue is interesting enough to keep reading the following story of the book.

Perman successfully starts the story with many details and hooks, whereas Schlosser fails to motivate the readers to go on to the next chapter because of an inadequate analogy and quick summaries of the whole book. Perman leaves many mysteries and secrets about the burgers and company to the readers at the end of the introduction to motivate them to step forward, whereas Schlosser finishes his story there and does not give enough incentives to the readers to read more. Perman also quotes many interesting episodes to invoke readers' attention, but Schlosser displays the facts only to persuade the readers. For a book, especially for a non-fiction book, an introduction always plays a very important role to catch the readers' attention. It is a good strategy to leave them a little unsatisfied so that they will look for more and turn the pages. These two introductions are perfect examples of what is effective and ineffective.