“The Field Trip” - Alphafduedu“实地考察”alphafduedu.doc

Erika DepelteauDepelteau 3Prof. CafoneENG 1100Final Proficiency examSpring 2008“The Field Trip”In the United States, around ten billion animals are slaughtered every year. Today, slaughtering animals on a large scale causes significant logistical problems and public health concerns, with public distaste to meat packing in many cultures influencing the location of slaughterhouses. In her essay, “The Field Trip,” Cheri Register explains that The Wilson & Co., meatpacking plant was the economic backbone of the town for many years in the 19 50s (Register). She explains to the readers that she and her classmates were taken on a field trip to “the plant” where the students watched the intimidating, yet barbaric work that the employees had to do every day. The field trip introduced the future career for the students, following their familys footsteps into working in an intense meatpacking house, unless they decide to excel in their education, and find themselves a more successful job. Like most parents in town, Registers father worked at the Wilson & Co. meatpacking plant. The slogan for her fathers factory was “The Wilson label protects your table” was not only an advertising slogan, but the literal truth. We knew there would be no table to sit at if it werent for Wilsons” (84). Register explained that “the plant” is the primary local industry where many town people worked at in order to keep their families fed and clothed and sheltered. The economic situation of the town, a violent strike, at this point that the trip has taken place was more of a struggle then pleasure. Without this industry, the town was literally at risk. Register sees women working at the meatpacking house and tells the readers her reaction, “Their hands moved quickly and they could look up briefly to raise their eyebrows in greeting. It was strange, even a little shocking, to see them this way: hushed, restrained, their movements regulated by the rhythm of the machinery (87). She expected that the women would be back at home working as a house mom, waiting for her kids to come home from school. However, these women were not the case. It taught her how important it is going to be to work hard school, to succeed, to open doors for the future so that her hands wont be the ones working quickly, for they will be typing in an office as a business woman, giving a juice box to a little boy as a teacher, or even holding papers with questions on them as a lawyer asking questions to her witness. The purpose of taking students on field trips is to turn real life experiences into teachable moments. Register and her classmates going on a field trip to the meatpacking house reminded me of my experience of going to the Ocean Breeze factory. Register remembers “Kids made gagging noises, pinched their noses, and crowded the door, ready to escape. The smoker room employees went on working as if they had no sense of smell” (87). Registers description reminded me, as a reader, of the time when my classmates and I entered a machinery room where there was outbursts of loud noises from machines that were making juice bottles. The students would put their hands over their ear plugs and stay to the closest exit door. As the students in Registers class climbed higher to a harder, more disturbing project such as carcass slabs, there were fewer women and more muscular men (86). Moving towards the louder, more machine handling rooms during my field trip, the muscular men overpopulated the women. Reading this descriptive essay gave me flashbacks of my experience at the Ocean Spray field trip. The reactions from the students coming back from the trip consisted of horror and shock. Cheri Register remembers the message told by her teacher which was, “Start planning your escape. Everything you do from now on must help you out of here” (