The Meat Industry In Ruth Ozeki's My Year Of Meats

In Ruth L. Ozeki’s novel titled My Year of Meats, she utilizes protagonist Jane’s experiences filming a propagandistic television show for an American meat lobbying organization to explore social and political problems in both American and Japanese cultures and how each illuminates the other. In particular, halfway through her journey filming and discovering the structured ignorance fueling the meat industry, Jane attends a Baptist church in Harmony, Mississippi while interviewing the poor, black family of Miss Helen and Mr. Purcell Dawes as possible stars of an episode of My American Wife!. The sermon given by the Preacher that morning in Mississippi prepares the reader for Jane’s dive into researching the unpopular details of the meat industry, its mechanisms of success and the industry’s place, or lack of, within the countries, states, towns, communities, neighbors and families of the world. Throughout My Year of Meats, Jane explores the effects of the meat industry on a plethora of aspects of life including reproduction, economy, regional identity, racism, and gender roles. By telling the story of how life is all interconnected and dependent on each individual through the Preacher, Ozeki forces the reader to consider the meat industry’s place in this
Overall the deliberate placement of the Preacher’s sermon in My Year of Meats preceding major realizations of the horrors of the meat industry prepares the reader to understand the meat industry’s place in the world by both reinforcing and juxtaposing Jane’s experiences. Though the roles assigned to family and community by the Preacher seem inaccurate when considering how they perpetuate racism and oppression, Ozeki shows how this systematic design benefits the meat industry as it allows them to do whatever is needed for fast profit at the expense of the individual, family and