My Year of Meats!

So far I love this book and it is definitely my favorite book during this course. For this blog I am going to focus mainly on the theme of meat and the way American’s are perceived that Ozeki has in her book, The Year of Meats. Lets be honest Americans are obsessed with meat. Usually men are really big in to meat because when I go out to eat with my family my mom and I are eating like chicken or something and then their is my dad and uncles who are eating these huge steaks or burgers. Have you ever heard the “saying”: ‘Girls are treated like a piece of meat’. I think that that is the message that Ozeki is trying to portray to her readers. If you look at it women are always used and thrown away like a “piece of meat” and although we have tried many times over the past decade, century, etc it is like we will never be equal to men because they always try to degrade us. Also women are the ones who are always the ones who are cooking and doing the house work while the men are outside grilling the steak (’cause you know women will “mess it up”).

Isn’t it funny that when we talk about America we talk about Walmart or for example on page 33 Ozeki wrote “Suzuki had a passion for Jack Daniel’s, Walmart, and American hard-core pornography.”  We have drinking, shopping, and movies all in one sentence. But, honestly, that is a bit stereotypical to say that it’s what American’s do all the time. Also Japan sees Walmart as a place that is abundant in many different things while Americans see Walmart as a place where you can get everything you want from food and clothing to i pods and video games. Furthermore we portray ur country as the “Land of Opportunities” and yet when immigrants come from across the globe we whine and tell them to go home. I feel as though we are very hypocritical when it comes to stuff like that. I think that Ozeki is trying to get across a lot of different themes so I’m excited for what is next to come in this book.

4 comments April 12, 2008