"How Do Genetically Modified Foods Affect Your Health?" Critical Analysis

“How Do Genetically Modified Foods Your Health?”

Critical Analysis

By Lucas Peterka 804

In “How Do Genetically Modified Foods Affect Your Health?”, by Rachel Mount, Mount wants to inform readers about the impacts GMO’s may have on your health and how so little research has been done on the topic. One example gives of health impacts is when she states, “As genes are transferred between plants, allergenic proteins will pop up in unexpected places.  Mount also gives an example of an experiment done to gauge the damage GMO’s inflict. In this study, multiple generations of hamsters were fed GMO’s. By the third generation, they were losing the ability to produce offspring. MOunt also states that “studies link GM foods to altered metabolism, inflammation, kidney and liver malfunction, and reduced fertility.

Mount’s purpose with this text is to make her readers cautious about GMO’s. One technique she uses to express this is foreshadowing. She tells of studies that predict changes in bodily functions that have only been tested on animals. She never once said that humans would experience those same side effects, but she’s hinting that it will. Mount also makes the FDA and companies that develop GMO’s seem secretive and untrustworthy. She hints that these groups don’t care about your health when she says “Because GM foods are not required to be labeled as such, it’s impossible for consumers to tell them apart from regular foods.” Writing this after she mentions multiple health concerns is meant inspire distrust towards groups in support of GMO’s in her readers.

Rachel Mount did have some compelling evidence that persuaded me to support the labeling of the GMO’s, but she did not offer enough evidence to make GMO’s unsafe to me.

"Seeker" Blog Post

Seeker Blog Post

By Lucas Peterka 804

In the book “Seeker”, by Arwen Elys Dayton, the three Dreads are metaphors for the three main characters, Quinn, Shinobu, and John. In Dayton’s fantasy novel, we find characters tricked into doing terrible things by elder members of an elite agency called ‘Seekers’. Because of the horrible events that occur, we find our main characters running away from the location where it all occurred. However, mirror images of those characters exist in that very same place.

The first Dread, or the ‘Old Dread’, is most similar to Shinobu. They share many of the same personality traits. Both are both calm and calculating, but can be aggressive when needed. Both are always entwined with “each” Quinn. They also hate and despise their respective John, but must hide these feelings until their own Quinns acknowledge his flaws. Both Shinobu and the Old Dread also share some physical ailments. Both are weak, although for different reasons, throughout the bulk of the plot.

The second Dread, or ‘Young Dread’, is most like Quinn. They’re personalities are very similar. Both are very skilled fighters and can perform well in physical situations. They are both very cold and can maintain intense focus. They are also both very naive at the beginning of the book, both believing the Seekers’ actions just and fair. Both, by the end of the book, are hardened and more exposed to world ever than before. They are also both ready to do whatever it takes to take down their personal Johns.

The third Dread, or the ‘Middle Dread’, is the Dread version of John. Both are very driven to do what they believe to be right, even if it means working with the wrong people. Both are also oblivious to the fact that their missions are changing their selves, and for the worse. Both are also despised by their Shinobus and Quinns, yet they are oblivious to that fact. And most importantly, both are pursuing the same item in their quests for domination.

The similarities between the Dreads and main characters is uncanny, their too alike for it to be a coincident. The two mirror images shows us what would have happened if Quinn, Shinobu, and John had stayed behind to become Seekers. Although the characters are extremely similar, the two storylines are not.       

"Gone" Book Respone REVISED

“Gone” Book Response REVISED

By Lucas Peterka

Michael Grant’s “Gone” is a loss of innocence story set around a character, Sam Temple, who has had the harshness of the world revealed to him in an apocalyptic situation. Sam is a teenage boy faced with the responsibility of leading his peers against known and unknown enemies. Grant focuses on the courage and maturity that can be found in any child; the courage and maturity that usually goes unnoticed by the rest of society. In the traumatic plot Grant has put before his teenage characters, we find their actions, thoughts, and feelings becoming more and more adult as the plot develops. Grant not only wants us to see the plot growing more complex and mature, but also see the children maturing along with it.

           In the beginning of the book, we see Sam’s courage start to develop. After the adults disappear, a fire starts in a building in the town square. Sam, seeing the danger it poses, takes charge of his peers. Many of the older kids get to the abandoned fire station to retrieve hoses while Sam himself dives into the burning building to save a trapped child. With this small, little scene, we can see Grant introducing courage, determination, and leadership in these kids that will develop throughout the story. Sam taking charge shows us that inborn leadership that needed only the right situation to spark its development. The kids running to the station to retrieve the hoses for the building shows us the determination in those kids to save their town. But most importantly was Sam’s courage, jumping into that burning building to save a girl he didn’t know. Here, we see the plot already maturing, and along with it, our teenage characters.

           We even find this courage and leadership in other characters. Caine, for example, even as the book’s “bad guy” has shown incredible abilities to lead and manipulate with his words. When Caine and his followers came down from Coates Academy, a school for “troubled kids”, to Perdido Beach, Sam and his peer’s town. Soon after Caine enters town, he gathers the entire town, and with one speech, practically takes over. Grant uses Caine and this scene to express a differen way to use the new maturing skills of leadership. Because Sam uses his leadership skills to lead fairly, he shows us Caine leading with the wit of his tongue. Grant shows us how maturing can lead to darker paths. With this scene, Grant shows us that with these attributes, the children can be both honorable and manipulative.

           With this book, Grant hoped to make us that certain traits are found in all ages and sizes. And just like in adults, they can be used for, simply put, good and evil. Because maturity, courage, leadership, and determination are in everybody, even the “bad ones”. These traits give people power and how they use it is up to them. But in “Gone” people not only use this power however they want, it’s the kids who are using it. And to Michael Grant it is important that everybody realizes that everyone has an equal chance to become dangerous or protective, truthful or manipulative, good or bad. In Michael Grant’s “Gone” he shows us that maturity can mean very different things and can be used in very different ways.

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