My Year of Meats- Allison, Rachel, Kendra, and Bella
Chapter 10 Summary
Jane begins the chapter by telling the story of the production crew trespassing on private government property because they didn’t research the area in which they were going to be filming in. Dave is introduced as a new character and serves as the production crew’s driver through Colorado. Dave is very talkative about the agriculture of the West, which keeps Jane interested for most of their time driving.
Akiko faces medical complications from the sexual actions of John but is not aware of the severity of the complications.
A new episode of My American Wife is to feature a woman named Bunny Dunn. Part of this episode will feature the family business called, “Dunn & Son, Custom Cattle Feeders.” Gale Dunn is the son of Bunny and her husband John and he has a lot of control over the business. Jane’s primary interest seems to be questioning Gale on what he feeds or gives to the cattle. Gale admits to feeding the cattle recycled plastic, cow pieces, and manure, combined with shots of the hormone Lutalyse which aborts pregnancies in cows.
Rose is the five-year-old daughter of Bunny and John, who is discovered to have fully formed breasts. Jane recognizes that the cause of this could potentially be the hormone DES. Bunny agrees to interview with Jane and the crew regarding Rose’s condition, showing them her advanced puberty in an effort to raise awareness to the issue. Jane questions Gale on the matter, and he denies any responsibility for it. At the conclusion of the chapter, the crew visits the slaughterhouse and Jane is knocked over by a hanging cow and is unconscious.
Chapter 11 Summary
Akiko awakens in the hospital with no memory of how she got there and the only thing she could remember before waking up was her crying through her bleeding eye. The nurse gives her a note from her husband which basically says not to tell anyone that he had hurt his wife, and that what happens between husband and wife, stays between husband and wife.
Jane finds herself covered in blood and Suzuki explains to her that it wasn’t her blood, but that she fell into a pool of blood in the slaughterhouse. The injuries Jane has are a small fracture and a concussion. Jane discovers that she lost her baby due to a miscarriage and she blames herself for it. Bunny tells Jane that Gale had told her that he never gave Rosie anything. Jane asks the doctor if she can see her baby but is then informed that the baby was incinerated immediately after removal and that the baby would have been a boy. Jane tells Kenji to find and keep her tapes but he tells her the tapes have been destroyed and that she has been fired by Ueno. Sloan calls and Jane informs him about the miscarriage and he is upset.
Akiko tells Nurse Tomoko that her husband had raped her and that she knows she’s pregnant because she saw it all happen the previous night. Akiko tells Tomoko that she needs to leave the hospital and Tomoko tells Akiko that she doesn’t want her going back to her husband and that she must leave him immediately.
Jane’s mother tells her that she threw away her baby but Jane explains that it was a miscarriage. Her mother tells her that she lost four babies before Jane and that when she and Jane’s father tried for a fifth baby, she would have a go-en in her mouth. She said that when she and Jane’s father got really drunk one night, she accidentally swallowed the go-en and that’s why Jane was born. Jane tells her mother that the medicine she was on when Jane was still inside her is the reason she had the miscarriage and Jane’s mother slips her a go-en when they say their goodbyes.
Akiko returned home when John calls and immediately after her conversation with him, she calls a travel agency to start her escape plan. Akiko invites Tomoko over and takes a pregnancy test to prove she is pregnant. Bobby Joe Creely is playing on the bus Akiko is on and she smiles because she feels as though she’d finally done something “worthy” to the women in Bobby Joe’s songs.
Discussion Questions
- “Forget it. I gotta do something. You guys are journalists. Maybe you can figure out a way to help.” (275)
This quote shows that Bunny’s reasoning behind exposing her daughter’s condition is to try to make people aware of the issue so a cure could possibly be found. Bunny exposes her daughter to these journalists completely, showing them her symptoms after she was given a sleeping pill. Do you think it is okay that she exposed her daughter in the way she did? Or would simply talking about her symptoms (instead of showing them to journalists) be sufficient?
2. “In the dust lay a slimy, half-dried puddle containing a misshapen tangle of glistening calf-like parts--some hooves, a couple of bent and spindly shins. It was an aborted fetus, almost fully grown, with matted fur, a delicate skull, and grotesquely bulging eyes. Suzuki rotated the lens into a telephoto setting, but even without it, through the swarms of flies, I could see that the eyes of the calf were alive with newly hatched maggots.” (267)
This quote shows the blind defiance that John and Gale (a.k.a Dunn and Son) have when it comes to enhancing the outcome of their product, beef. They inject ALL incoming female cattle with Lutalyse to abort any pregnancy that may be in term, no matter how far along they are, as well as the non-pregnant cattle. What do you think about the substances being injected into the cattle? Do you think that this is a message the author is sending to the audience about current/modern farming practices?
3. “It doesn’t matter so much for a son, but since she’s a girl, I want her to be an American citizen. So she can grow up to be an American Wife.” (318)
This quote emphasizes the difference of having a son and a daughter in the Japanese culture. In Japan it is a lot harder to raise a girl than it is a boy. Akiko wouldn’t care to move if she was having a son, but since she thinks she is having a girl she plans on moving to America. She wants her daughter to feel free to do whatever she wants in life, even if she doesn’t follow the traditional the Japanese culture. What do you think the significance is that Akiko is certain her child is a girl, but Jane is unable to carry her son?
4. “I pressed my face into the rigid fabric and wept, which got me all covered in blood again, and then I didn’t know what to do with the clothes, and in the end I just walked out onto the street and threw them in the garbage, figuring, it’s New York; there’s something bloody in everybody’s dumpster.” (Jane-pg.303)
What do you think this says about what Jane thinks of New York? Do you think this is more of a literal statement or a metaphoric statement? In other words, do you think that people literally have bloody things in their dumpsters or do you think it’s a metaphor for everyone having an important secret of some sort?
Contemporary Connection
Currently, there are six steroidal hormones approved by the FDA for use of “food animals.”
Extended Discussion
Below are two websites discussing cattle slaughterhouses. I tried to find two articles with opposing views on the matter so you could get “both sides of the story”. I know there is a lot of reading so, I’ve attempted to shorten it. In the first article read through So most people think of a cow as something that's out grazing, and then is taken to the slaughterhouse. The second article answers six questions, read three of the six.
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