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Omnivore's Dilema

In: English and Literature

Submitted By Amberbruno2989
Words 544
Pages 3
Review Essay
Amber J.Osegueda
English 135 (Advanced Composition)
Professor Doloski
05/11/2012

After reading “Omnivore’s Dilemma”, (One) The Plant: Corns Conquest, I was surprisingly intrigued with all the interesting information about “Zea Mays”, which is also known as corn. The use of corn as “North Americans” is explained in great detail, and also gives us information on how we cultivate corn, through its simplest form and walks us through to its most complicated use. The origins and history of this grass plant, which some people might not fully grasp is explored and many new details are revealed and explained. “Corn Sex” as read in the chapter also sheds light on how this plant pollinates itself, and also the explanations of hybrid corn product. This chapter was full of factual knowledge on corn and goes into depth about “Zea Mays”. The food that we put into our mouth is hardly ever questioned or given a second thought. One of the outstanding details that were brought to my attention in this chapter was how the origin of certain foods can be traced back to corn in almost everything we as “North Americans” consume today. In example, chicken nuggets are made with processed corn products such as corn starch and the chicken itself contains corn because of its diet. Most of our sugary sodas also contain bi-products of corn which is corn syrup. North Americans are described in the chapter as “corn chips with legs”, while our neighbor country Mexico has an array of carbon food. This gives the reader an idea, how much corn is used in our country today. When speaking about corn, Thanksgiving often comes to mind. The story of “Squanto”, a friendly Native American, is credited with helping the early American settlers in planting the first batch of corn. Though the origin of corn is not for certain, it is believed to have been first discovered by Columbus on May, 1492. The rich history and importance of “Maize” is brought to light by this chapter and also gives great descriptive detail to the reader. The use of the pollination process for the corn was interesting and elaborate. The explanation of how the Native Americans were the first to interfere with the corn pollination and how they have successfully cultivated 1,000’s of different varieties of corn, showed how they were the first to successfully breed corn for different environmental situations. “The plants unusual sexual arrangements”, have made it easy for human intervention. Adaptation is stressed in this topic, of “corn sex” and makes me as a reader think about how important it is for the U.S to have properly cultivated products throughout the year. In conclusion my review of this chapter on “Omnivore Dilemma” Part One, The Plant: Corns Conquest, was a positive one. My expectations for any non-fiction book, or essay would be to contain factual evidence to be presented to the reader, and also to have descriptive words and adjectives to hold my attention, and also for the flow of the book, or essay to be smooth. All three of my expectations were met in this chapter and contained many facts about corn that I did not already know, which convinced me to keep reading.

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